We were slow to get started today, but eventually headed out around noon sporting our new Yellowstone t-shirts. Our destination for today was the Tower-Roosevelt region with a stop at the Artists Paintpots.
We drove through a lot of mountains today, at one time being at 9000 feet, so high we could reach out of the car window at some places and touch the snow we had been looking at from a distance for a few days. Of course, again, there were the bison and elk along the way. At Tower we walked the short distance to Tower Falls which is a 132 foot drop. We made our ice cream stop for today choosing Painted Buffalo Chip for today’s flavor Yesterday it was Moose Tracks, tomorrow we will see. We then drove a few miles to Roosevelt Lodge in the northeast area of the park. Along the road we saw a black bear, and at the lodge we saw a trail ride/chuck wagon supper group heading out across the plain for an evening of fun.
On our way to Tower-Roosevelt area we stopped by Gibbon Falls
on the west side of the Park.
On our return we made at stop at Canyon Village and happened upon the education center where we watched a short film on the geologic formation of Yellowstone. This is one of the new buildings in the park (6 years old) and a really nice building.
Before heading out and our stop at the Artist Paintpots, we took a short drive down to the Lower Falls drive. When we pulled into the parking lot, we took the first available parking space. Since we wanted a little better view of the falls, we decided to take the trail along the rim to a better lookout point only to find that we could have driven the car to that point. We had a good laugh about stopping so quickly and having to make the trek back. It was worth the hike though, as the view was stunning. We also saw an eagle’s nest perched atop a large pinnacle jutting up from the canyon floor. Neither of us could get a photo because we don’t have powerful enough lenses for a close-up photo. In fact, to the naked eye we could only see the white light of a head bobbing about. Twice today we had the pleasure of seeing an eagle soaring through the canyons. It is a magnificent sight.
The Lower Falls, which is on the northern edge of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone yields a beautiful view from high atop a lookout point. The river is about 2,500 feet below this point.
Our last stop was the Artist Paintpots area. This area includes some hot springs with varying colors as well as the color-tinged pots of mud bubbling up from below the surface of the earth.
Byron thinks the contrast in this photo of amazing. Two pools, side by side, are each fed from different levels deep under the earth’s surface. The green and red tint to the “paintpots” is certainly indicative of the name.
We had been talking about songs that have come to mind as we make our trek through the park and today’s was…
“For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
-For the love which from our birth over and around us lies:
-Refrain:
-Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.” – Written by Folliott S. Pierpoint.
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