The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Our programme described a walk along the North and South Rim Trails of The Grand Canyon. Dave proposed that the whole party walked along the South Trail, but that there were sections that were somewhat exposed (in the sense that there a steep drops to the side of the path). Some of felt we were getting short-changed by missing the North Rim, others were worried about the exposure. By this time, we'd been joined by a second guide, so Mike organised a shorter walk for a few people, and convinced the rest of us that the South Rim walk was a full day's worth.

Bo drove us all to Canyon Visitor Center. We took the same drive in every day, alongside a lovely river. Today, we made a short stop to photograph some elk.

After using the facilities at Canyon, we drove on, dropped off the few you'd opted for the shorter walk and parked close to the South Rim. We set off in an Easterly direction across a grassy landscape. It was already sunny and getting hot, despite only being mid-morning so we were pleased when we entered some woods.

We soon stopped to admire Clear Lake, which is fed by a hot spring. This gave Dave the opportunity to remind us that this is a bear area - and to tell us about the hiker who'd been mauled to death here in 2011 after disturbing a female grizzly and her cubs. Bears that attack humans in the park are usually 'euthanised', but this one was reprieved because the cubs had been with her at the time of the incident. However, she attacked again  later in the year, so met her maker.

Shortly after Clear Lake, we came across a series of mud pots in the heat of the sun, before re-entering woods and heading North towards the canyon. We headed further East when we reached the edge towards a viewpoint where we stopped for our lunch.

So, now we could see why this is called The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - it's very steep-sided and heads down to the fast-flowing Yellowstone River. Stunning.

We then followed the South Rim trail, which sometimes did get a little close to the edge, but not close enough to worry anyone. There were plenty of photo opportunities and different views of the gorge revealing themselves. We could soon see the Lower Falls and hear them getting loader as we got closer. Artists' Point was understandably crowded because there was car park nearby! There were queues to take photos from the best spots. We waited our turn!

We both took a large number of T-shirts on this holiday. It was entirely coincidental that both we chose to wear our Steely Dan T-shirts on the same day.

A bit further along the trail, we had the option to take the 300+ steps down Uncle Tom's Trail (and then back up again). Rosie declined the opportunity. Feeling properly recovered from my earlier impairment, I went ahead and was glad that I did. We got below the level of the top of the falls. I ascended quickly, just to show myself that I could. I was pleased to have a rest while waiting for the others.
We re-assembled and headed towards the Upper Falls. These would have been spectacular if we hadn't seen the Lower Falls earlier. 

We were hot and bothered by the time we got the car park, and the aircon in the coach was welcome. The others had been left at Canyon Visitor Center and had had the chance to look in the shops. Some had bought ice creams. This had to be done, but Rosie prefered to rest  rather than choose her own flavours. So I walked to the shop and joined the 'line'. There was great choice of flavours, so one flavour each was not going to do the trick. So I went for the 'two scoop' option. It turned out that these each 'scoop' was actually three scoops. So we each had six scoops in a tub. As Bill Bryson would say - an ice  cream the size of a baby's head. I had to dash across the car park in the afternoon heat to avoid them melting. Finishing the ice creams would clearly not going to help our appetites for dinner. But the ice creams were delicious, especially my peanut butter and chocolate flavour....

Dinner that evening was not at the Holiday Inn (hurray!), but at the Grizzly Claw Mexican restaurant. This didn't look particularly promising, but turned out to be tasty, with decent portions but no drinks licence. I'd happily have eaten there every night at Yellowstone.

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