Norris and Canyon

We woke up to fog and clouds with the threat of rain. Gibbon Falls was pretty, but we both noticed how much they have changed the road around here. There is more parking now, and what used to be the road is now a walkway to take pictures of the falls. We tried to stop at the Artist Ink Pots on the way to Norris Geyser Basin, but again parking was a problem. In fact, it was hard to even get around the parking lot, because cars were parked haphazardly. Thank goodness I didn't have a trailer on the back, we would have been stuck. Norris was a similar story, after about 15 minutes we did manage to find a parking place. We decided to do the back basin. Steamboat Geyser was spurting about every 2 minutes or so. This geyser has the largest eruption in the park, but the last eruption was on July 31^st and given that it has erupted only 2-3 times a year, we weren't going to wait for it. As we got to the furthest point on the 1.6 mile trail, the rain started. The features were interesting and colorful, but we were quickly getting wet again. It reminded me of a Balza clan Yellowstone trip, where we got a picture of all the cousins in their yellow rain coats lined up at the Norris Geyser Basin sign.

We headed off to Canyon and ate lunch in the car on the way there. We stopped on the Virginia Cascades road, this road is in danger of falling into the river. The pullout from which we used to take pictures in no longer there, in fact, it was difficult to get a picture except from the top of the cascade. 

We started our tour of Canyon at Artist Point on the south rim. The rain stopped, and with the clouds the colors really stood out. We found a small hawk in one of the trees here. We also listened to a ranger talk on the animals (primarily birds) that live in the canyon. Then on to Uncle Tom’s trail which leaves you at the base of Lower Falls after climbing down 586 stairs. I’ll admit I had to stop on the way back up for a rest. But it was well worth the effort. 

Lower Falls from Uncle Tom's Trail

Then onto the North Rim where I descended to the top of Lower Falls. You could see the people and the stairs on Uncle Tom’s trail from here. The colors continued to be outstanding, a case where the cloudy day was probably the best weather for the views. We went on to Inspiration point, which was a disappointment. The lower part of the view platform was closed because it was unstable, so you could just barely view Lower Falls. By now it was 4:00 PM, so we headed on back. Mary decided to head north from Norris Junction to see if we could spot some moose along the willows. But we soon ran into construction and were twice stopped to wait for traffic along a one way stretch. We gave up, since it looked like we still had another five miles of construction to go. A better day for the views, even if the traffic didn't cooperate.

Yellowstone Canyon from Lower Falls