Day 2 - The Yellowstone Canyon

We couldn't drive all the way to Yellowstone and only visit the park once. So after conferring with my brother and sister after day 1, we decided to spend day 2 along the south rim of the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone. My brother, Carl, had found an internet article claiming that the south rim of the canyon had the best hike in all the park. Additionally our oldest son, Justin needed to complete a 5-mile hike using a map and compass. So why not knock off that requirement in the exact same location that his old man fulfilled the same requirement 24 years ago? It actually turned out to be pretty neat. Candace convinced me that we should stay as a family, so Darren went in the backpack and everybody headed out onto the trail.

The first stop was the Upper Yellowstone Falls. They were neat, but not a show stopper. We parked only near the overlook and where at the viewpoint minutes into our hike. Here is a shot of Alex and his hat at the Upper Falls.We continued east along the rim and soon we started to get peek-a-boo looks at the Lower Yellowstone Falls and we could tell that this was going to be the star of the hike. We were happy to catch up to my sister and her family along the hike at the first overlook for the lower falls. We enjoyed the walk with them all the way to Artist Point. When we arrived the view was breath taking. It was almost comical to watch and listen to everybody walk to the viewpoint, stop, and say, "Oh, wow!" You couldn't help yourself. The view was magnificent.
As we continued passed Artist Point, the views of the canyon continued to be drop dead gorgeous. At one point we stopped and listed the colors we could see: yellow, many shades of red, pink, orange, tan, brown, white, shades of green in the tree and water, and blue skies. It is hard to describe the beauty and the pictures of the canyon don't do the colors justice, but I'll try.We eventually had to turn away from the canyon and hike through he back country. We saw the aptly named Lily Pad Lake, swatted some mosquitoes, walked through another stinky geothermal area with mud pots (Amanda actually held her nose the entire time as shown in the picture below), passed Clear Lake and then out into an open meadow. We were rained on while hiking and saw some thunder, but nothing too serious. The rain actually kept the bugs at bay. It was a spectacular hike and everybody made it the 4.2 miles back to the car. Including Amanda who walked every step of the way! Justin and I went and walked a loop up above the upper falls to complete his 5 miles and then we all went for ice cream and souvineirs. It was another great day!