Well, it wasn't really a rest day after all. Although Grant was a nice enough campground and we were a stone's throw from Lake Yellowstone, we decided to move on. We wanted to take a tour of the lakeside, which meant heading up to the Fishing Bridge area. We also wanted to see the Hayden Valley tomorrow morning, since it was the last major accessible wildlife area in the park and was one of the most active bear areas.
At first we thought we might stop at the Bridge Bay campground, near Fishing Bridge, but when we got there, it just seemed a bit too open field-like. By asking at the registration desk about the availability of a site at the Canyon campground, I found that there were less than twenty sites of our size left, so we made a reservation.
Canyon campground is north of the Hayden Valley. We wanted to leave Yellowstone tomorrow, Sunday, and the best wildlife viewing is early in the morning. The plan was to finish the day by driving up through the valley, camping at Canyon, then rising early, going through the Hayden Valley and, finally, out of the park to Grand Teton National Park. Having a reservation made the rest of the day stress-free.
It was certainly less stressful than the driver of a fifth-wheel trailer in the campground. As we were leaving, it seemed easiest to loop through the campground and out, About half-way around, and up a fairly tight loop we came upon a big, 40'+, fifth-wheel trailer and it's big pickup truck tow vehicle, that had gotten stuck trying to back into a site. The trailer was almost jack-knifed, with one corner almost against a boulder. The truck couldn't move without hitting a tree, and it totally blocked the road. It was not a pretty sight. We backed up into an empty site, turned around and didn't stay to watch the action.
After leaving Bridge Bay, we drove across the Yellowstone River at Fishing Bridge and up along the lake to the Lake Butte Overlook. It was a great high view of the lake and the mountains beyond. The day was clear and we could even see the Tetons. When we came back down to the lake, we stopped to look at a flock of ducks cruising along the shore. They were ones we'd never seen before with big black heads and gray bodies. Our guess, looking at Sibley and the Audubon iPad App, was that they were Barrow's Goldeneyes, although the plumage didn't quite look like the pictures. Later, the ranger at the Fishing Bridge visitor center confirmed it, saying that the pictures always show the breeding plumage and that had faded.
It was off to a short hike. It was a two mile walk around Indian Pond, through a pine woods and out to Storm Point on Lake Yellowstone. Except for the herd of Bison along the pond, the part through the woods seemed like walking in the woods at home and the lake shore was similar to walking down the Cape. It was a pleasant pre-lunch walk.
We stopped at the Fishing Village visitor center for lunch at the picnic area and a tour of the museum, which was one of the historic log museums. They had an exhibit of the animals and birds that can be found in Yellowstone—all were stuffed, a museum from a by-gone era. While there, we asked the ranger about wildlife viewing in the Hayden Valley. He said that animals could be almost anywhere, but the best possibility for wolves was at an unnamed view point just 10 miles up the road. We found it on our way north, noted it on the GPS and planned to return early in the morning.
It was off through the Hayden Valley (many Bison were seen down along the Yellowstone River) to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. As we had been along the North Rim a couple of days ago, we took the South Rim drive this time to see the Upper Falls and another view of the Lower Falls.
After the look at the Upper Falls, we took our second short hike of the day, down Uncle Tom's Trail for a close-up view of the Lower Falls. Down it was,a steep path and then a 500 foot drop down 320-odd metal grate steps to the viewpoint. The view was spectacular, even a double rainbow (mistbow?) in the spray from the falls. Then it was back up 320-plus steps and a steep trail to the parking lot.
Artists Point was the only other viewpoint along the South Rim Drive. It is called such because it has the classic view of the Yellowstone Falls looking up the canyon and river. It was classically crowded as well.
As an aside—we also saw two interesting groups of motorcycles in teh parking lot. One was four nearly identical KTM Adventure 990s, with all the dual-sport farkles and camping gear, each carrying a couple, two-up. They were accompanied by a Jeep, with off-road gear. I asked the Jeep driver if this was some kind of organized tour, but it was not, just a group of KTM-obsessed friends and they'd come along as the support vehicle.
The second group was a strange collection, Three Vespa scooters, a Piaggio MP3 three-wheeler scooter—and a Harley. I didn't get a chance to talk to them.
It was off to Canyon campground for a shower, the second in as many days (what luxury), a stop at the store for tomatoes and Hagen-Daaz bars and into another very large campground, Loop K, this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment