South Rim of Grand Canyon
Walking along the south bank of the Yellowstone river, heading for the views of the Upper Falls, we encountered some deer on the
trail. They certainly didn't seem afraid of us, judging by how close they came - I could practically touch them as they walked past. The view of the Upper Falls is excellent from the south rim! If you are willing to climb down a whole bunch of stairs, you can descend along Uncle Tom's Trail to a platform
that gives a fine view of the Lower Falls. There was a rainbow visible in the mist from the Lower Falls. Looking downstream from the south rim, you can see the canyon wall of the North Rim. The red colored rock
in the center of the next picture is (I believe) where the Red Rock lookout point is, I think the viewing platform is on top
of that outcropping, and Lookout Point is up and to the left on the rim. Artist Point is a famous observing point - all the postcard pictures of the Lower Falls are taken here. This is thee classic
spot for view the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. A man I met at Artist Point told me he had been on the North Rim the day before, when it
started to hail. The hail rained down on the canyon, and melted, mixing with the yellows and reds of the rocks, until the water in the Yellowstone
River was tinted yellow. I sure would have liked to see such a sight! But we had perfect weather, I guess I can't complain about that. Rather than walk back from Artist Point along the South Rim to our car, we decided to take the Lily Pad Lake and Clear Lake trail back through the northern end of
Hayden Valley to the Wapiti Trailhead. This is an easy hike, and it has some find sightseeing. There is a small bubbling mudpot that was active
by the side of the trail. Plus, we got to see Clear Lake. The next two photos show these features. The trail takes you along the northern edge of the Hayden Valley, which sometimes is full of wildlife. We didn't see any buffalo,
but we did get to see the "Big Sky" effect of the wide open landscape. You can see in the photographs how quickly the clouds change in this area.
This must be a spectacular area when there were millions of buffalo. We did see a herd of the big animals crossing the Canyon / Fishing Bridge road
at a later point in the trip, even a couple hundred of the animals is fine sight indeed. The last three photos are from our hike along the Clear Lake
trail to the Wapiti trailhead.
