Upper, Lower & Tower Falls...and a Grizz!

After leaving Norris Geyser Basin, we headed to the eastern side of the upper loop.  We took a road to a picnic area around Virginia Cascades.

 

The road had a steep drop-off with no guard rail on my side of the road.

 

At the picnic area, there was this warning sign about bears on all the picnic tables...

 

...but we enjoyed our picnic lunch bear-free.
 

After lunch, we drove to the Lower Falls overlook.  Look who was walking down the middle of the parking lot.

After the buffalo was past us, we parked and walked to the Lower Falls overlook...

and the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."

There was snow that had still not melted at the bottom of the falls.

Further down North Rim Drive, there were more overlooks that gave us better views of the Lower Falls and the Canyon.

The Lower Falls and Canyon were both beautiful and powerful.

After we pulled back on to the main road, we drove a little further south to the brink of the Upper Falls.

I don't think anyone would ever want to canoe or kayak anywhere near the Upper or Lower Falls.

 

There was a rainbow at the base of the falls.

The Upper Falls are not as tall as the Lower Falls but are still very powerful.

As we started up the eastern side of the upper loop, the views were no less beautiful

and the flowers were too.

Mount Washburn stands 10,243 feet tall.

As we headed back down on the other side of Mt. Washburn,

we noticed several cars parked along the road.  When there are cars parked along the road in Yellowstone, it usually means someone has spotted an animal.  What was the animal this time?  BEAR!!

And this bear was a Grizzly!

 

He was several hundred yards away from us down in the valley; but we could see his radio collar when I zoomed him up with my camera lens.  A ranger said that the bear probably weighed around 300 lbs.

 

I sure am glad he was a long way off in the valley!

After we left the grizzly, we saw more buffalo down in the valley.

 

While we were stopped because of road construction for about 30 minutes, I took pictures of the nearby flowers.

Our last stop was at Tower Falls which was very beautiful too but not quite as powerful as the Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

It did have some big rock towers around it.

We went into the store at Tower Falls and met this couple who we had seen biking on the road.  They were full-time bikers!  They left the end of March from Texas and have biked over 3,000 miles so far.  They are planning on continuing further north and then heading over to the Pacific Coast and riding all the way down the Baja of Mexico and then down through Central America all the way to the tip of South America.  Amazing!  They carry everything they have in packs on their bikes.  They even have a website!  www.wanderwheels.com

OK.  I know you're tired of looking at all these beautiful pictures by now so it's time for a game.  See if you can find this tower-like rock:

 

on this canyon wall.

Also, did you notice the columnar rocks at the top of the picture?  Kind of like the Devils Tower columns and Sheepeaters Cliff?

Because of the road construction, they would allow the traffic to proceed only one way at a time and then they would move equipment during part of that time also which is why we would be stopped for as much as 30 minutes at a time.

The construction didn't seem to bother this buffalo any.  You know how it is.  You get used to living in a big city like Yellowstone and just learn to put up with it!  :)

As we continued on, we saw a pronghorn antelope...

...and more buffalo...

 

...and elk back at Mammoth Hot Springs...

...and mountain sheep on this cliff.

Do you see them?  They REALLY blend in.

 

How about now?

Ok.  I'll zoom them up for you.

I bet they don't have many predators way up there.  They walked along the side of that cliff better than I do on level ground.

Wow!  We're tired.  How about you?  We saw elk, buffalo, a chipmunk, a petrified lizard, a snake, deer, more buffalo, a grizzly bear, a pronghorn, more elk, and mountain goats along with hot springs, thermal waters, geysers, waterfalls, flowers and some of the most gorgeous scenery in America.  And this is just the first day!

Below is a map of the 90+ miles we traveled on our first day trip into Yellowstone:

 



View Yellowstone Upper Loop Day Trip in a larger map