Exploring Yellowstone: Canyon and Roosevelt areas

We wake up to find NO SNOW! Yea! My son loves the snow, but I’ve had enough snow and am ready for warmer, dry weather.

We have a good breakfast and then head north of Fishing Bridge area, stopping often to look at the scenery. Joe is very anxious to stop at the Mud Pots area, so we take the boardwalk trail around the area and enjoy watching the bubbling pots and hot springs.

We park at one of the many overlooks of Hayden Valley and eat our lunch in the truck. Then drive to the Yellowstone Falls area. We hike along the South Rim Trail to see the Lower and Upper Yellowstone Falls. Great hike with great views of the Lower Falls without the busloads of tourist surrounding you (although Artist Point is quite crowded). The canyon’ color near the waterfalls is wonderful.

Unfortunately the North Rim trails are all closed this summer due to construction, so we continue north to the Canyon Visitor Center. They just opened this center last year and it is very nicely done with great exhibits about Yellowstone’s thermal activities. We also watch both movies they show in their nice theatre.

It’s already late in the afternoon, so we grab some ice cream before continuing our drive north. We see wildlife, drive through Dunhaven Pass, which still have several feet of snow on the sides of the road, and stop at Tower Falls for another short hike. We hike down to the Yellowstone River and Joe builds a dam across a small creek that joins the Yellowstone River.

We stop at an overlook just pass the Tower Falls area and watch big horn sheep and an antelope with two babies across the river.

Then continue on for quick stops at the Roosevelt Lodge and Petrified Tree areas. We had planned on driving a scenic dirt road but it is closed. Joe likes the sign at the gate “Road Closed Due to Poop Conditions” and gets out to take a picture.

Someone obviously changed the word “POOR” to “POOP”, very appropriate with the buffalo droppings in the road.
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On our return trip we stop to watch a coyote and her 4 pups play near the road. She apparently has a den near the road here, so lots of cars have stopped and a ranger is posted to monitor the crowd. Very interesting and fun stop.

We drive the long drive back to the campground, but the wildlife (including our first Yellowstone moose) and scenery make the drive go quickly.