September 8, 2010 Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Thomas Moran is one of my favorite landscape painters and he made Yellowstone famous, especially the Grand Canyon. We headed out to see it, but not before being stuck in not one, but two bison jams that were huge. The first was broken up by a ranger and the second by a rain storm. We started with the south rim and drove all the way out to Artist Point. The sun came out briefly and the canyon lit up. You cannot imagine how beautiful it is and really, a photo cannot do it justice-hence Moran and others who painted here. The colors shifted as the sky changed. We walked about a half mile further out along the canyon trail to reach Point Sublime, but we turned back because of time. The view from Artist Point is the upper falls.

We went back along the rim to the lower falls. There is a trail that goes down 328 steps to a viewing platform. The catch is the 328 steps back up. Uncle Tom's trail. I went about 1/3 of the way down, with knees screaming. Mike continued the whole way. I will have to view Mike's photo's to see the view.

In the afternoon, we went on a wildlife tour. We went to the Lamar Valley. Along the way, we saw pronghorn, the ubiquitous bison, a grizzly, mule deer, an elk, who was attacked by a wolf and took refuge in a creek, with the wolf laying in wait(never did see the wolf). Tour was not what we expected, but someone else was driving through a mountainous part of the park.