Sunday started surprisingly cold, at about 40 degrees, after the previous day’s high in the mid-70s. We again got up early and ate breakfast about 7 a.m. in the hotel restaurant, but there were noticeably fewer people eating there. Our food came quickly. We finished, and drove into the park about 8 a.m. The destination for the day was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
We first stopped at the visitor center near the canyon to get a recommendation from the ranger. Then we drove to Artist’s Point on the south rim. It was cold and windy, but we were ready for the cold. It was a gorgeous view with amazing colors.
Next was a drive along the north rim, with a few spots where we parked and walked to viewpoints. One of them was at the brink of the falls as it went over the cliff. Spectacular! We were also lucky enough to see a grizzly bear. We knew something was up when the cars jammed up ahead. Driving slowly past a crowd of pedestrian watchers, we heard it was a grizzly. We found a place to park and saw the bear down in a grassy valley maybe 200 yards away from the road, contentedly eating something in the grass. My camera, without a big lens, couldn’t capture the image well. But both Linda and I were thrilled to see it through our binoculars.
We ate a picnic lunch back at the visitor’s center after we had watched a couple of short films about the park and gone shopping in the gift store. The picnic table we chose was close to the visitor center building, out of the cold wind. The high for the day reached only about 50 degrees.
Then we drove about 12 miles to the Norris Geyser Basin, where we had stopped on a previous day. We walked around a boardwalk loop that we had missed before, seeing steaming fumaroles and mud pots.
By that time, it was about 4 p.m. and we were tired. We headed back to the hotel to rest and have dinner in the room.
Lori's Travels 