The Five Hobos: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

We spent a really LONG day in the park today. Our first stop was the Canyon area, which includes two gorgeous waterfalls on the Yellowstone River. After taking some pictures at Artist Point, we took a hike along the ridge above the river... really really HIGH above the river. I don't know if I've mentioned the altitude difference here, but we really noticed being 7000 ft higher than we are used to at home on this hike. Short steep uphill climbs had us gasping for air, even Jim, who hikes all the time. It is a really remarkable difference.

After the falls, we went to Fishing Bridge and checked out Lake Yellowstone. WOW! Big lake. It was almost like being at the ocean, with waves! Absolutely gorgeous, even though the smoke from the wildfires in the area made it look more like LA then Yellowstone. We thought it was smoke from the Idaho fires, but found out later, two of the fires in the park had picked up speed and were produce "impressive columns of smoke".

Back on the road around 7:00 seemed like a good time to do the entire upper loop and search for wildlife. We did see bison... A LOT of bison. Many of them were crossing the road and blocking traffic, which was amusing for the first 20 or so minutes. Eventually we made it through that traffic jam and headed north. We did see some elk and more bison, but no bears or wolves. :-(

We also talked a woman who works at Fishing Bridge. We learned that the park service has RV parks (with full hookups) for their seasonal employees! hmmmmmm.. She and her husband both work for the park during the season, then go back to Florida for the winter. How cool would that be?!?!?! Full-time hobos. I like it!