Yellowstone – Canyon, Waterfalls, Mammoth and Critters

It was a gorgeous day for everything we did today.  First thing we did this morning was take a narrated boat ride on Yellowstone Lake.  Among the many things we saw on the lake, there was, surprisingly, the wreck of a boat – the E.C. Waters.   Even in the beginning of the park’s history (1880s), there were concessionaires running tours in the park, but they often had VERY different ideas about what should be an attraction in the park.  E.C. Waters did boat tours (reasonable) and wanted to put what amounted to a theme park on one of the islands in Yellowstone Lake, including a zoo and Indian village (with Indians living there).  The park eventually kicked him out, but his boat stayed on the Lake.  One day it burned down (arson) and they left the wreck on the lake.  The arsonists had to pay a $400 fine for a $60,000 boat.

In addition to the beautiful scenery, we saw many animals today : 2 Bald Eagles, several Bison, a flock of Canadian Geese and Merganzer Ducks (one on each side of the road in a pond that crossed under the road), elk, and a mule deer.  We saw 2 of the 6 known osprey nests in the park.  They even still had chicks in them.  They were on top of very tall spires in the canyon which was very very windy.  A park ranger told us that the reason the nests don’t blow away is that they usually weigh about 500 pounds.  An eagle’s nest can weigh up to 1000 pounds!!!  We even saw a coyote catching his meal.  He was standing over a hole in the ground and while we were watching, he pounced straight up in the air, all four feet off the ground, and came up with something in his mouth. 

After our boat ride, we had lunch and ice cream at the oldest general store in the park.  Then, we headed toward the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, one of Sandy’s absolute favorite spots.  The first stop was to get a close up view of Lower Yellowstone Falls.  We went down Uncle Tom’s trail.  Uncle Tom was another of the park’s early entrepreneurial trail guides.  He “developed” the first version of this trail – people went down it on ropes and ladders.  The 300 stairs down 500 feet that we did was easy compared to that trip.  We saw a rainbow at the falls and absolutely phenomenal views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Then we walked several more overlooks to see the canyon and both the upper and lower falls.  By the end of all these up and down stairs walks, we were beat and it was late in the day.

So, next we drove the rest of the way around the upper loop of the park, taking pictures and doing short walks, until it got too dark to see anything.  We saw a lot of elk (like we get deer in Twain Harte) – all over the lawns in Fort Yellowstone near Mammoth at the northern end of the park.  Then, we went to Mammoth Hot Springs to see some of the Hot Springs there.  We didn’t get back to the campground til after 8:30 and we took over 600 pictures, though we have edited them down to less than 300 – that’s a good thing, right?!?!?!