Continuing on the Figure 8 Drive to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Picture taking at the Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Next stop on the Figure 8 double-loop drive through Yellowstone is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Crowds are a little lighter than what you find at the Grand Canyon they have down in Arizona.

And here's the canyon.  With waterfall.  I believe this is the Lower Falls.  Or should that be "these are the Lower Falls."  Is falls plural?  Or are falls singular?  Water does fall more than once, although each droplet only falls once.

Grammar niceties are not the focus of this vacation.  Viewing at the viewpoints, however, is.

An unobstructed view:

This is toward the Artist Point viewing point.

General rule:  when a place in a national park is called "Artist" something, it's generally a very good viewing point.  Why else would the artist's hang there to get there picture of the place?  These national parks go back to the 19th Century when artists actually cared about beauty and presentation.  I would avoid anyplace called "Modern Artist's Point," or, worse yet, "Post-modern Artist's Point," but a straightforward "Artist's Point"?  I'm there.

Moving on, shall we?  To the Upper Falls.

Greener.

This is a view of the canyon sans waterfalls.

Now I was faced with a dilemma.  I've heard stories of a metal staircase called Uncle Tom's Stairs.  (The Uncle Tom was some guy named Tom who used to work at Yellowstone years ago.  There is no reference here to a Harriet Beecher Stowe novel or any characters found within.)  The stairs were perched on the side of a cliff.  Gaps in between the stairs.  There were like, 10,000 stairs down to the canyon floor to get a spectacular view of the falls.  So here was my dilemma.  Should I walk down the stairs?  YOLO, as the kids would say.  On the one hand, seeing as the stairs were perched on the side of a cliff, my irrational fear of heights (and my highly-rational fear of endangering my personal safety) would kick in.  On the other hand, climbing up and down 20,000 stairs would kill my legs for the rest of the trip -- rest of the year -- presuming I could even climb my way out and I would not need to be medivac-ed out of there.  So what to do?

Problem solved.  I so totally would have walked the stairs had they been open.

 Anyway, having been spared the ordeal -- I mean, denied the opportunity -- of walking down 40,000 stairs stapled to the side of a cliff, I got back in the car to drive to the next destination.  I was headed for the Mammoth Hot Springs area at the top of the Figure 8.  But there were sights to see en route.

I don't even know what this canyon area is called.  It even had a cool rock formation along the riverside.

This is a canyon that is grand, even if it is not THE Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

I don't even know what this place is called.

Yellowstone is filled with places like this.  Incredibly beautiful, but there are so many spots that are incredibly beautiful that you can't keep up with the names of all of them.

Yellowstone Stinks II: the Mud Volcano

The aptly-named Dragon's Mouth Spring.

You hear such a loud rumble here, that it's easy to imagine there's a smoking dragon inside its cave.

Not far from the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, and just a stone's throw from the bucolic LeHardy's Rapids, is the Martian landscape of the Mud Volcano Area.

The walking loop of the Mud Volcano Area starts with the Mud Caldron:

Mmm.  You also can smell the hydrogen sulfide gas.
 

Actually, when you are there, you can.

Less smelly from a distance.

This is the aptly-named Sizzling Basin:

Boiling mud.  I've not seen that before stepping foot in Yellowstone.

This must be the Churning Caldron.  Again, the air is redolent with the smell of hydrogen sulfide gas.

This is Sour Lake:

I'm guessing you don't drink the water from there.  And here is the eponymous Mud Volcano:

I was expecting something more volcanic, but, again, boiling, roiling mud is not something you see everyday.

On the other hand, completely living up to the hype is the Dragon's Mouth Spring.

There has got to be a dragon inside that cave to produce that much smoke and that loud of rumbling.  In all honesty, it's not necessarily a relaxing feeling knowing how very alive the earth is here inside the Yellowstone Super-Volcano Caldera.

Off to the Sulphur Caldron, up the road a few feet:

This is an amazing sight.  Right next to the beautiful, placid Yellowstone River is a smoking sulphur caldron:

And here I am enjoying the nature.

Next stop along the Figure 8:  the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Unless I stop off somewhere en route.  As keeps happening.

Driving the Figure 8: the Lake, LeHardy's Rapids

LeHardy's Rapids along the Yellowstone

One of the problems with Yellowstone is that there are so many extremely spectacular sights that are completely unlike anything else you've seen on earth, that a lot of the absolutely beautiful sights get lost.

(Poor Grand Teton National Park has this problem.  It's beautiful.  It's amazing.  But it's right next door to Yellowstone so the overall impression is a relative "eh."  Put it almost anywhere else in the Lower 48 and it would breath-taking.  It's like a concert performer having to take the stage right after James Brown or Graham Parker in their prime.  How do you top that?  It's a whole lot easier to follow Blondie or A Flock of Seagulls.)

But first, Lake Yellowstone, which is right outside the front door of my hotel.

It's enormous.

The water is supposed to so cold that if you even dip a toe in, you freeze solid.  I think I used that line before.  I'm old.  Repetition happens.  Repeatedly.

The Lake Village area is kind of small, with one giant hotel, a general store, and a medical clinic (perfect for us old people in danger of having our feet chopped off).  And this.

It appears to be an abandoned gas station.

My car is getting outrageously good mileage at the high elevation, so there's no need to fuel up for the drive around the Figure 8.  All of the sights you want to see in Yellowstone, for the most part, are along two circular loops that touch, forming basically a Figure 8  Lake Village would be the southeast corner of the Figure 8.  So we head north to the Mud Volcano and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The problem is that you can't just drive from place to place.  You'll be toddling along and see something you didn't know was worth seeing and you immediately make a hard right turn into the parking area. 

First stop:  A brief walk through the trees and then to LeHardy's Rapids.

This is the Yellowstone River, having come from the lake and, at this point, heading north.

And here be rapids:

It's no Mud Volcano, I know, but it is beautiful.

I liked this place so much that, at the end of the day, when on the same segment of the Figure 8 heading south back to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, I stopped again:

Even more spectacular with the evening light.  I saw a duck going through the rapids:

He's a tiny spec so you can't make him out.  But seeing him shoot through the rapids was hilarious fun.  Laugh out loud, as the kids would say.  I hope the duck enjoyed it.  I did.