Thursday, August 2, 2012

Day 77 (August 1) – Yellowstone (Canyon and Tower)


There was so much to see today.  It may be hard to remember.  We thought about moving today to a new area, but the campgrounds stay full and we didn’t want the headache of finding another spot when we have a perfectly good one.  This meant a little more driving, but not too much.

We drove south and then east to the Canyon area first this morning.  We wanted to beat the crowds.  I think we managed it with our first stop.  There was plenty of parking in the Brink of Upper Falls lot.  We walked down the steep switchbacks to the Upper Falls overlook.  (This would be Yellowstone Falls in the Yellowstone River.)  It was hard to get a good camera perspective on it viewing it from the top, but it was amazing to see and hear.  Then we hiked a half-mile over to a switchback trail (a strenuous ¼ mile) to the Brink of Lower Falls overlook.  The Lower Falls are bigger and even more amazing.  Then we hiked back to the truck, grabbed lunch stuff and hiked a half-mile to the picnic area.  All in all I’m guessing we hiked about 3 miles today.  Yellowstone River has cut a canyon in this area and we caught several beautiful views of the canyon with its colorful rock.

After all this hiking we drove to the VC and saw the exhibit – very well done – and watched a movie – the best one we’ve seen here.  Then it was definitely time for ice cream.  We each got one scoop that was really more the size of three scoops.  Once again we forgot to take pictures.  I had caramel cream coffee.

We left the Canyon area and headed north around the upper loop to the Tower-Roosevelt area.  Here we saw Tower Falls and the Petrified Tree.  Also, the drive was more mountainous than the other areas we’ve driven.  It is such a varied park.

We drove on around west, back to Mammoth and got sodas, and headed back to camp.  We were too worn out for a fire tonight.  I tried to take a shower in the camper and something is wrong with the shower.  Yet again!  I was disappointed.  Brad was mad.  Stupid shower.  I used No Rinse Shampoo and Body Wash and felt a little cleaner.  Tomorrow we are planning to stay outside the park at a campground with showers, laundry and wi-fi.

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