Day 11 - Canyon Village area, Yellowstone National Park

Day 11 brings us to another exciting part of our adventure. We are now transitioning from Wapiti, WY into a three night stay in the Canyon Village area of Yellowstone and probably one of the most photographed waterfalls in the world. 

But before we get to the area photographed above, we had to hitch up the Subaru and head west out of Wapiti. We had the pleasure of traveling along the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway. This incredible road, that parallels the North Fork of the Shoshone River (see below), has some of the most amazing geology that we have witnessed. The light from the sunrise was just perfect for some of these photos. To us this is what the western part of America should look like. It was breath taking.

That is an amazing balancing act!

We made our way back into the east entrance of Yellowstone and continued west to Fishing Bridge. As I have mentioned before this area is the headwaters of of the Yellowstone River. In this particular section of the river you would think that this is a lake, but I assure you it is a moving body of water. The photo below was captured by Cindy and I believe another one of her award winning shots. The cloud reflection and angle of light really makes this a beautiful shot.

Here is another photo along the Yellowstone River that has a few interesting things going on. The thermals in the center bottom and on the left are a highlight of this picture and typical along this stretch, but notice the fly fisherman (bottom right and near center) standing in the middle of the river. When I think of fly fishing this has got to be an experience of a lifetime and in the top five locations on their bucket list.

Moving along...we are back into the Hayden Valley, which by most accounts we suspected encounters with Bison, and sure enough they were plentiful. The easiest route for these huge animals is to just walk down the middle of the road. And as I mentioned in earlier posts they could simply careless. This is their natural habitat and if someone wants to build a road in it...so be it...they will and did take advantage of it. 

UNBELIEVABLE! This is not a telephoto shot. This big guy walked right next to the car. 

Here are a few videos of the same Bison you see above. Cindy and I were really exciting regarding this encounter so we had every type of recording device in use so we would not miss anything!

Here is the big guy on video walking right beside the car!

The above pictures and videos were pretty much a couple of lone bulls just hanging out. The next set is a couple of miles up the road where the bigger herd was located. The next video we have bulls, cows, and calves. Some of the Bulls are were getting a little vocal and sizing up each other. You just need to turn up your audio to hear them.

We believe one of the Bulls across the river from this herd...heard all the commotion and decided to investigate. However, he had to swim across a pretty deep section of the Yellowstone River. We call this our National Geographic Moment of the day!

 

It was still very early in the day so we did a lot of exploring in the Canyon Village area. The highlight of this area is the Yellowstone Canyon and the upper/lower waterfalls.

Upper Yellowstone Falls

Here are the videos of the Upper Yellowstone Falls to accompany the still shots above. Please note that Cindy mistakenly called this the lower falls, but it is in fact the upper falls. Simple mistake caught during the editing of this blog. :)

  

We drove a few miles down the road from the Upper Falls into one of the most congested areas of YNP. The Lower Yellowstone Falls (308' drop) is probably one of the most photographed waterfalls in the US if not the world. I know some folks might suggest that Niagara Falls would be the number one. I have my opinion since I have seen both, and bar none this is the most scenic based on the back country feel and the geology that surrounds the canyon below the falls.

We had to wait patiently to get this photo as the hordes of photographers were jockeying for this one position. We would have taken a video, but for narration reasons we did not want to talk over the numerous languages and tour guides.

So instead we did what Cindy and I do best and that is hike away (its very true...you walk 100 yards away from any trail head (congested area) and you lose 95 percent or more of the visitors to get better shots --- hence the picture you see at the beginning of this post.  Here is a video.

Here is a shot down the Canyon, which is just as amazing as the waterfall. The colors are where the name Yellowstone were derived from. I know that is obvious to most, but I just thought I would mention it.

Chris very near the Lower Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Resting on vacation is not in our DNA, so after we got settled into our cabin we gathered our packs, hiking poles, water, and bear spray and headed out for 4.5 mile hike out to Cascade Lake. 

This was very much in Bison and Grizzly country. Hikers just finishing up their hike warned us that they had seen a Momma Grizzly with her two cubs. At this point Cindy and I were probably the most awake and focused humans in YNP! I believe my head was on a swivel looking around for any sign. Unfortunately we did not see any bears. :(

   

We heard some thunder and decided to high tail it back to the parking lot. That was probably the fastest egress that we had ever done in a long time. The wind had picked up so fast as we were entering sections of trees like you see behind Cindy in the photo above, that we could hear BIG trees falling down. There is nothing boring about our adventures!

After dinner and the thunder storm we decided to drive back into the Hayden Valley too catch any animal life that tend to move out of the tree line and into the grassy fields at dusk. Again we were not disappointed as these two Bull Elk decided to show up. We believe they were just waiting out the storm as well.

Personal opinion, but these are one of the most majestic animals in the wild kingdom.

That ends Day 11. On Day 12 we made plans to hike up Mt. Washburn and to the Fire Tower. I'll be posting that later on.