Yellowstone Day 3

So, on day 3 we headed out for a hike around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is a really amazing geological feature of the park and, dare I say, much more exciting than any of the hot springs/geysers. The Yellowstone river flows through the canyon and there are two large falls along the river--aptly named Upper and Lower falls. The hike took up our entire morning and was a lot of fun.

So happy to be setting out!

The Yellowstone River

Upper Falls
I wish you could see in this picture that it was a straight drop several hundred feet into the water from where I was sitting. (I'm OK, Mom.)

Upper Falls, a view from a quarter mile up the river

Just a-hikin' along, looking for wild life

BAM! Marmot.

The Canyon
(Taken from above Lower Falls)

"Tom's trail" down to a view of Lower Falls
(It's like doing the stairmaster at the Y, except it's out in nature and a couple rusty metal beams are the only things separating you from certain death.)

Lower Falls

Experienced front-country hikers

The stairmaster master

The Canyon from Artists Point

Again, but with a lady in front of it.

Bobby, you should try these things called clif bars!

 From the canyon falls, we headed to Mammoth Hot Springs because Courtney was told that it's the best place to spot "aminals." Apparantly they like to hang out in hot places. Who knew!

I saw this sign about a billion times.
I feel so sorry for the little boy scout getting blown up in the picture just because he stepped off the path and into a geyser.
("You win some, you get blown up by some.")

 SOOOOO, about those animals.....Court spotted a herd of Elk in the distance, and we raced down to the Mammoth Springs town square to take a peak.

Elk!

Two elk!

Baby elk!

Elk that got uncomfortably close to us but just wanted to eat this tree!

 And if that wasn't enough animal-related excitement for one day, on our way back to our cabin we spotted our first BEARS from the side of the road!

Couldn't be happier.....

Black Bears! (although it's hard to tell.)

 All in all, a pretty exciting day. Court was "satisfied" with the number of animals she had seen......but she didn't know that the next morning would be a veritable BEAR FRENZY! (That's the best hook I can give you to look at the next post and put up with our over-saturation of pictures.)