Vacation Report, Day 3

The morning of day 3 started bright and early with a 6AM wake-up and group trip up to Big Sky for the family and I to get a run in.  We arrived, and split into 3 groups heading separate ways, all hoping to get in runs between 30-50 minutes.  The weather had other plans, however, and within 15 minutes, a menacing storm had rolled in from the mountains.  My wife and I, who were together, were near enough to a shopping center to be able to get some cover for the bulk of the downpour.  Once the rain backed off a bit, we picked up where we left off, but within a couple minutes, saw my parents in the rental car pull up along side us.  The run was over after only 19 minutes.  A good attempt nonetheless. 

After tracking my sister down, we returned to the ranch for breakfast and prepared for the day.  We took off for our main activities…exploring the central and north sections of Yellowstone.  Our planned route was a loop from West Yellowstone to Madison, then Norris, then Canyon Village, then Tower Junction/Roosevelt, then Mammoth Hot Springs, and finally back to Madison and out of the park for dinner and the trip back to the ranch.  Obviously, there was a lot to be seen, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking for the most part. 

Our first animal sighting…a nest of Osprey

A wide view of Norris Geyser Basin

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

From the canyon lodge area, we enjoyed a nice 3.5 mile hike to the canyon, then down to the falls.  My dad brought his Forerunner for measuring distance, but we haven’t checked the elevation.  I’m guessing it consisted of about 1000ft of climbing all told (including 600 feet of swtichbacks to get down to the brink of the lower falls…seen below.

Lower falls front facing viewpoint

Looking down on the Lower falls from the brink…rainbow bonus

Down the canyon from the falls

From here, we moved north to Tower falls, which although impressive, did not match the canyon.  The north section of the park was less crowded, so we were able to move through quickly on the road.  We also stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs, which didn’t have a lot of activity, but allowed us to hike a bit more.

A hungry buffalo encountered on the way out of the park

We stopped at West Yellowstone, MT for dinner before heading back to the ranch.  Overall a productive day for vacation.  We covered about 140 miles in the park by car and hiked about 5.5 miles with 1500 feet of elevation gain all told.  Needless to say, I’m pretty worn down upon writing this.  Tomorrow looks to be much of the same, except with the southern portion of Yellowstone (including Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake).  This is our last night in Montana, though, so by tomorrow night we’ll be at our new digs in Jackson, WY preparing to take on the Tetons.  Hopefully tomorrow we’ll see a grizzly.