8/21/2018 – Yellowstone NP

While I have been to Yellowstone quite a few times, I have never really spent much time in the north end of the park. This is Nancy’s first time here and so far, she has been amazed at the wildlife and spectacular scenery. I’m acting as the tour guide here, like she did for me in the Canadian Rockies. Both places are stunningly beautiful.

The park is still fairly crowded. I expect it will drop off considerably by the beginning of next week, which will make our remaining time even better. That means fewer “animal jams”.

When we got up today, it was very chilly and overcast. After breakfast, we talked about what to do and decided to go ahead and explore some of the park despite the gloomy weather. We headed southwest toward Norris Geyser. It took quite a while to get there….there’s a  major construction project to rebuild a large section of this road. Traffic is  restricted to one lane so it took much longer than normal.  The good news is by the time we got to Norris Geyser, it had turned into a beautiful, clear and sunny day.  From Norris, we turned left (east) toward Canyon Village. Canyon is named after the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone which is close by. It is one of the most spectacular sites in Yellowstone. We went into a few of the shops and decided to buy some bear spray for the rest of our trip. This stuff is really expensive ($45-$50) but Nancy will feel much more at ease knowing we have it on our hikes.

The parking around the Grand Canyon area was completely packed so Nancy and I left our truck in the Village area and hiked around behind the Canyon Lodge and cabins toward the north rim of the canyon. We were looking at a map on the road behind all the buildings when a maintenance truck stopped and asked if they could help us. We told them where we were headed and they pointed us in the right direction. Just as we were about to leave, they asked us if wanted some bear spray.  While we had just purchased some, we didn’t think we would need it for this short hike due to the heavy hiker and car traffic in the area. They said we still should have some bear spray and offered us a can they had in the truck. We said sure……they even showed us how to properly use it!  Canyon Village is the only place in the park that actually rents bear spray…..everywhere else sells it for $45-$50 a can. We assumed they had offered us a can of the rental spray….so we thanked them and asked them where we should return it. They said it was one of their personal cans and we could keep it!  WOW….how awesome is that?!  Those two young men that we assume were summer workers could not have been any more polite and helpful (and generous!). We thanked them again and, after our hike, we took our newly purchased can back for a $45 refund!

The hike through the woods to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was only about 1.5 miles each way.  I have never been to this part of the Yellowstone GC so it was really cool to see a completely different perspective. In the past when I visited this area, I always saw it from the south side. From there you can see Artist’s Point, which is one of (if not the) most photographed spot in Yellowstone.  Before we leave the area, we want to go to another spot on the north side of the canyon where there is a viewing platform just a few feet  above where the Lower Falls drop off into the canyon below.  We will visit the south side after we move the RV to West Yellowstone (Saturday).

After the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we headed north over the Dunraven Pass (9000 ft) to Tower/Roosevelt Junction, and then northwest back towards Mammoth. We stopped at several other very scenic spots overlooking the canyon area, the Yellowstone River, and the vast meadow of the Lamar Valley. We both really enjoyed the day….and along the way I realized that although I have spent quite a bit of time here, there is still so much I have not seen. It’s just as awesome today as the first time I saw it. And it’s really great to be seeing it with someone who is as excited to be here as me.

We will spending a lot more time over the next 2 weeks exploring Yellowstone…….

On the way to the Grand canyon of the Yellowstone….note the bear spray in Nancy’s back pocket!