Wonders of Yellowstone, Part 2: Grand Canyon

Contrary to the stereotype, not all of Yellowstone's wonders involve hot water. One, at least, involves very cold water!

I've never been to the other Grand Canyon, and I'm sure it's spectacular, but the one cut by the Yellowstone River has got to be at least as photogenic.

It's a place where you've never been more thankful that we've moved beyond the world of film and into cheap, easy electrons. I just couldn't stop taking pictures here.

We spent a wonderful, if chilly, morning (we even had some snow flurries!) on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, listening to an informative and entertaining ranger talk, and taking a couple hundred photos.

Although the Canyon walls are wonderfully beautiful, the big draws are not one, but two, fantastic waterfalls. The one above is the upper falls, which is the "little brother" of the two. But as you can see, there was serious water coming over that drop! Our ranger told us that the flow was about twice normal even for this time of year (when it's usually pretty high anyway). They had a heavy snow season, then a quick warm spell pretty much filled up Yellowstone Lake, the river's source.

Here's the lower falls, which is almost twice as high as the upper... 

...and a close-up shot of all that water...isn't it a gorgeous color!?

(See the folks on the north side overlook? To see what this platform looked like in 1955, go about half-way down this page. Plus there's a picture of me and Hal there in 1988, towards the bottom.)

The waterfalls are so impressive it's hard to take your eyes off them. But if you can manage it, you're rewarded with views of the gorgeous rock walls of the canyon (more precisely, the beginnings of the canyon; it goes on for more than 20 miles).

I mean, the canyon would be spectacular without the waterfalls, really...

But those waterfalls...geez, I just couldn't stop snapping views.

The walk with the ranger took us about 1/3 of the way to Artist's Point, which you just have to get to, assuming that the view there would be the best. And it probably is! Here is a shot from there with no zooming, to give you an idea of the panoramic glory of the falls and canyon:

What a breathtaking spot!

You might have noticed a big hunk of snow just to the left of the falls, yet unmelted and ready to contribute more water to the folks downstream. We actually got to sample the downstream waters up close and personal. I'll tell you about that later, when I gather pictures of all the wonderful rivers we saw, as well as several other very fine falls, into a giant paean to the glories of snowmelt.

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In case you want to see the wonderful Lower Falls of the Yellowstone in action, I uploaded a short (and rather amateurish, I'm sorry to say) video to YouTube.