South Rim Trail

After exploring the Old Faithful area yesterday, we headed north 17 miles to the Canyon area and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Every day, when we cross the Yellowstone River on the Fishing Bridge (where fishing is no long allowed), we pass over water that is destined to flow over the two falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Today we chose the South Rim Trail; the North Rim Trail will wait for another day.

The trailhead was at the south end of the canyon, right above the Upper Falls. These large rock islets upstream from the Upper Falls are remnants of a lava flow resistant to erosion.

Rapids just above the Upper Falls.

Plenty of water flowing over the rocks just before it...

drops over the 109-foot Upper Falls.

The South Rim Trail was tricky because just at the brink of the Upper Falls viewpoint, above, the trail was closed for maintenance. There are several other viewpoints along the South Rim Drive so we backtracked to the trailhead and drove to a viewpoint further along the Drive - Artist Point Viewpoint.

An intervening viewpoint parking lot for Uncle Toms Trail was closed, so we parked at Artist Point parking area and hiked back to the closed Uncle Toms Trail. Along the way we had this view of the 308-foot Lower Falls.

At the closed parking lot we stopped for our lunch and had this...

terrific view down the Canyon.

After lunch we headed down Uncle Toms Trail which is a steep staircase descending 500-feet to a breathtaking , up close view of Lower Falls.

Brink of the Lower Falls from the platform at the base of Uncle Toms trail.

After hauling ourselves up out of the canyon on the over 300 metal steps, we continued to the Artist Point Viewpoints. This is from the lower viewpoint and...

an upper viewpoint. This is one of the most photographed views in Yellowstone. 

The multi-hued rocks of the Canyon below the falls result from the hydro-thermally altered rhyolite (from the volcano eruption) and sediments. 

Enjoy these spectacular views of the Canyon as we did this afternoon.

Today's hike:
Length - 6.86 miles
Duration - 4 hours, 59 minutes
Elevation gain - 1,290 feet (133 floors on the Fitbit)

Geysers, Hot Springs, Falls & Bison

We decided to begin our Yellowstone adventures with a visit to Old faithful and the other hydrothermal features of the Upper Geyser Basin - the largest concentration of geysers in the world.

We began by climbing up to Observation Point where we ate our lunch - lunch spot - and waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing.

Lunch view from Observation Point. That the Visitor Education Center with the pointy roof. Old faithful is in the open spot ringed by people. (It will help if you click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

My favorite building in Yellowstone - Old Faithful Inn.

Right on schedule, as predicted at 1:45 p.m., the eruption began.

Higher...

higher...

and full throttle!

Continuing on, our first stop was at Solitary Geyser. Perhaps you can notice its eruption at the far right?

Liberty Pool - notice the purple flowers in the foreground.

We had just crossed the Firehole River and passed some trees when we glanced to the right and saw this bison just standing up from his afternoon nap.

Grotto Geyser

More Grotto Geyser.

Looking across the Firehole River.

Morning Glory Pool

Gem Pool

We were just walking along the trail when we came upon this fellow. Our negotiated solution was to climb the hill to the right and go around, giving him a wide berth.

Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin.

From Biscuit Basin we took a side trail to view Mystic Falls.

That's the Little Firehole River full of winter melt-off.

Our guest photographer was from Quebec.

Hiking back out the canyon.

Heading back to Old Faithful we passed this fellow. He reminds me of Ferdinand the Bull, just napping and smelling the flowers.

Crossing the Firehole River.

Retracing our steps across Upper Geyser Basin we passed a crowd of people just staring at a pool - they were waiting for Grand Geyser to erupt during a 2 hour predicted window. We didn't want to wait so we moved on. About 200 yards down the boardwalk we heard a roar and looked back to see the eruption in progress. 

We hurried back and, since an eruption of Grand Geyser lasts about 10 minutes, we had plenty of time to enjoy it.

We liked the little guy to the left that joined right in.

Old Faithful Inn from Upper Geyser Basin across the Firehole.

We were just passing Old Faithful when we looked back and saw Beehive Geyser erupting. The narrow cone acts like a nozzle, projecting a powerful water column to a height of 150 - 200 feet.

Today's hike:

Length - 9.74 miles

Duration - 5 hours, 4 minutes (including lunch)

Elevation gain - 799 feet (80 floors on the Fitbit)