A Beary Good Day

Today (June 23) was a very busy day that started with a trip toward Tower Falls. Not long after we were on the road, we saw a big traffic jam. We grabbed our binoculars and took off and were very happy to see a black bear with a cub. The cub was playing, then decided to take a nap. It was very cute. Hard to see in the photo. Look for the black dot.



We made it to Tower Falls and were treated to a glorious view of the falls. What is it about waterfalls that is so mesmerizing?


The next stop on our trip was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. In order to get there we had to go over the Washburn Mountain range and go through Dunraven Pass, which is a hot spot for bears. We were up pretty high and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. As we were driving, a car was frantically waving at us to stop. Why you ask...There was a black bear on the side of the road. Kate could have touched it had she wanted to. Way cool!


We were still on a pretty good high when we came upon another groud of cars pulled off the side fo the road, so wew dashed to the top of the hill to see what was there. At the bottom of the ridge, less than 100 yards away was a grizzly bear! He was digging for roots and grubs, and we watched him for a long while. It's not too common to see one that close (and maybe not taht safe either), so it was awesome!


We finally made it down to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (not the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Different canyons). Our first stop was Artist Point, where you can view the Lower Falls and the canyon from a distance.


We then hiked down the Southern Rim of the canyon which was pretty strenuous, but the views are worth the work. We ate lunch with a view of the falls. Next we went to the brink of the Upper Falls where the water goes over the falls. It was neat to watch the water go over the falls from above. Next we hiked to the Brink of the Lower Falls, the taller fo the falls. The path drops 600 feet and is pretty steep on the way down, which stinks for the walk back. It was good exercise and a great view.

After the canyon, we headed down to the mud volcano area. It's a thermal activity area with some pretty cool features. It smelled incredibly bad, so much that I got a little nauseous. The sulfur coming up from teh ground smells like the worst rotten eggs ever, but the sites are very cool.

After the Mud Volcano, we traveled down to the Lake Yellowstoen area and had a quick ice cream snack on teh lake. I had Moose Tracks which I thought was very appropriate. We sat in teh historic Yellowstone Hotel for a while, which used to be teh cream of the crop of hotels, but has gone downhill a bit in my opinion.

We decided to go down to Grant Village, which is still on the lake, to eat supper at the Grant Village Lake restaurant. They had a decent buffet for the price (everything is kind of expensive here. After supper, we rode through the Hayden Valley in hopes of seeing soem wildlie. We saw a blad eagle, whcih was cool enough, but he was fighting a hawk. We think the hawk may have had a nest in the area. The eagle ending up flying away, but I don't think his heart was in the fight.

Today was a really good day, and at the pace we're covering the park, we probably won't stay there entire week we had planned. Tomorrow is the Lamar Valley and hopefully some wolf sightings. Until then.

~Andy