YNP: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Mt. Washburn

This day's trip took us to the South Rim Drive of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and towards the eastern side of Yellowstone National Park.  We first stopped to make our walk out to the Upper Falls Viewpoint of the Yellowstone River.  What you see here is a 109 feet drop over volcanic rock and upstream you can see in the photo the old Canyon Bridge.  We went with the intention of climbing down the 300 steps of Uncle Tom's Trail to another viewpoint..but the stairway trail was closed this day. 

A little further down the South Rim Drive, we came up to the Artist's Point Lookout.  This section of the Yellowstone River's lower falls drops more than 308 feet.

The Artist's Point gave us the whole view of the falls and most of the canyon.  In reading, we learn this is why it was given the name Artist's Point.

The views of the Yellowstone Canyon on the other side of Artist's Point were impressive too.

There are several hiking trails along the south rim but because we also want to travel to Mount Washburn and possibly make the drive on the Chittenden Road up towards its peak, we passed on these hikes and made our way northward on the main Park Highway.

Mount Washburn, 10234 feet, is one of the more prominent peaks in Yellowstone National Park. The Chittenden Road, found just off the main Park highway, makes a 5.6 mile drive up to a parking lot.  From there, a 6 mile round trip hike up to the fire lookout tower begins. 

We didn't make this strenuous hike up to the peak, where we read the views were amazing.   We thought the surrounding views from the parking lot were still quite nice.

Beautiful landscapes all around.

The small dot on top of that peak is the Mount Washburn fire tower. The road to the very top was closed for maintenance this day so the only way to get to the fire tower lookout was the 6 mile round trip hike.

I am not sure of the distant mountain range..possibly the Absaroka Range maybe?

We made our way down the Chittenden Road, continued northward on the main Park road to the Blacktail Plateau Drive.

The Blacktail Plateau Drive is a one way dirt path through the back country of Yellowstone National Park.  We hoped to see some animal life on this drive, but unfortunately we did not.  We had read that during the late summer, August mostly, animal movement can be minimal due to the warmer weather.  Most animals stay in the higher country to forage for food and seek cooler temperatures.  We did see one black bear off the Park's main highway but there were so many tourists taking photos, we just quickly looked and drove on.

The scenery on the Blacktail Plateau Drive was very nice.

We stopped to take a break..still no animal sightings.

A view of the Blacktail Plateau Drive winding down the mountainside.

Returning back on the National Park's main road to our home base, we were again amazed by the landscape around the Tower Falls area.

We pulled over to walk the short path to the Tower Falls overlook.  This interesting landmark is most noted by the tall rock spires that mark the brink of the 132 feet water fall.  Interestingly, it was this waterfall, painted by the artist Thomas Moran and photographed by Henry Jackson, both in 1871, that inspired the US Congress to create Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park in 1872.

More Later
The last YNP post: our drive to Yellowstone Lake, West Thumb and the bison of Hayden Valley.