View from Mystic Falls Hike - Notice the Steam Everywhere

View from atop Mt. Washburn

Grizzly Mama + Cubs

A Land of Extremes

“It seems like there should be dinosaurs here.” -Tom

Yellowstone is truly a land of extremes. This morning (7/8…Sunday I think) we started our day with a hike to Mystic Falls. Getting to the trailhead involved following a boardwalk over mini-geysers, fumaroles, and bacteria pools. As the steam rose around us we marveled at what early settlers must have thought as they first came upon the area. Of course, many of these early visitors (often trappers in the area) were ridiculed when they shared their stories back at the taverns of civilization. The hike was a pretty strenuous jaunt uphill to an observation point that overlooked the Old Faithful area and all of its geological hyper-activity. From then we continued down to Mystic Falls…waterfalls just don’t seem to get that old to me.

This afternoon we drove north, stopping at Artist’s Point for some pictures of the falls as they cascaded through the canyon. The canyon walls themselves were amazing; the colors ranged from a bright yellow to oranges and brick red. This little trip was also interesting as I almost saw a man fall off the cliff while he tried to sit on a rock for a picture.

After we got a campsite in the Tower Falls area and had a late lunch (real gourmet today…chicken breast, butter/herb noodles, corn) we decided that we still had enough time to do the Mt. Washburn hike. The view was supposed to be fantastic and guidebooks all but guaranteed a sighting of bighorn sheep. Alas, the trip was a failure in this regard as the sheep were apparently hiding in the valley today, but the view was absolutely marvelous. This was another strenuous hike with a (no exaggeration) continuous uphill the whole way. We did top out at over 10,000 feet (I’ll have to look at the picture of the sign to be certain of the height) so it really felt like we accomplished something. The fact that we did the whole thing in just under 3 hours means that we’re pretty tired now.

While in the parking lot after the Mt. Washburn hike we ran into a guy who was telling us that they had seen a grizzly mom with her two cubs just up the road. We left right away with the hope of seeing her before she moved on. Fortunately, our wildlife-viewing luck returned from its bighorn sheep sabbatical and we indeed came upon the grizzly on the hill above the road. She was making her way up the hill and the cubs were running around this way and that. It is amazing how effortless their movements look for being such a large animal.

Tomorrow we’re going to drive through Lamar Valley in the evening and hopefully see some more animals (we just keep checking them off the list!). Again, you’ll have to adjust for the dates because this won’t be posted until 7/10. If these posts seem like they are getting wordier (maybe they always seemed that way to you, or maybe you’re like Tom and just like to look at the pictures), just bear with me; I usually keep a journal on vacation and it seemed redundant to do the blog and the journal so this is serving as both.

I almost forgot! Last night we took a walk along the river by our camp (some bugs had hatched and the fish were jumping like crazy) when across the bend there was about 5-8 doe elk and 5 little fawns laying around and browsing in the grass. With the mountain in the background and the stream in the foreground, it really did look like a painting. Alas, you will have to take my word for it because we didn’t take the camera for the hike.