YCGL - Yellowstone - Wednesday, September 14, 2022

 The day was overcast again, but not unpleasant.  I wanted to get there "early", so I left at 8:30 which should have gotten me to Canyon by 10:00.  I drive up to the East Entrance and there is a line.  Not a long wait, but an omen.  A little after you drive over Sylvan Pass, about 5 miles in, you come to Sylvan Lake, nice, good photo through the trees, and a person is parked in the middle of the road, blocking traffic in both directions, calmly taking a picture.  That's bad, but it wouldn't be quite as bad if the scene wasn't coming out of a blind curve at 45 mph.  That was a clue.  

I make the turn north at Lake and drive about 5 miles towards Canyon and hit another traffic jam.  This one was not moving in constant intervals like yesterday.  It creeped slowly, fractions of a car length (which gets really irritating), no cars coming the other direction, classic features of a Bear/Bison/Elk jam.  After about 15 minutes, I've inched forward to the entrance to the Nez Pierce Picnic ground, so I pull off.  The road goes off to the east about a half mile to the Yellowstone River.  I sit there watching guys fish in the river, enjoying the view, maybe dozed a little, but I was there about half an hour.  

As I drove back to the Grand Loop Road, I could see what the hangup was.  

The little black spot on the side of the hill was a bear.  When the bear crested the hill, the jam quickly broke up and traffic moved again.  That was about 45 minutes.  We drove about another 5 miles and another jam.  I can't see anything in the way, but a long string of traffic.

This one was an hour, with no escape like the last one.  When I finally got to front of the line, this is what the jam was about, a group of bison on the side of the road.  

Now, it is well after noon when I get to the South Rim Drive.  It's drizzling, but my goal was to walk the south rim trail from the Upper Falls to Artist Point.  The walking trail guide I picked up yesterday listed this a easy with a 50 change in elevation.  

The Upper Falls

       

The Lower Falls from the trail

  

The Lower Falls and Yellowstone River from Artist Point (and required Selfie)

From the Lower Falls on the south to Inspiration Point on the north side (and redhead who backed into view while I was taking the panorama.)

It is one of the most incredible sights in the world.  Thank goodness some people in congress in 1871 decided that this 2.2 million acre area should be preserved for the public.  

The trail that I walked was supposed to 0.8 miles long.  My GPS said 1.3 miles and while there may have been a 50 foot difference in elevation from the start to the end of the trail, the walk itself was up and down, the path was broken up asphalt in a lot of places, it was just harder to walk than I anticipated.  So I walked back to the Upper Falls parking lot along the road.  Not scenic, but a "road more traveled"  and much easier to walk.  (Sorry Robert Frost)

I did most of the stops along the North Rim Drive.  I did not go down to the Brink of the Lower Falls. You can see the walk way at the bottom of the left picture.   

The geology of this region is really interesting, but I'll let you learn about it on your own.  

It was almost 5:00 by the time I hit Canyon Village.  I was wet, cold, tired, and touristed out.  I  had really wanted to go up to Tower-Roosevelt and the Lamar Valley, and see some of the damage at Mammoth, but I was done for the day.  

Yellowstone National Park is an incredible, almost unbelievable resource and treasure.  However, it is being loved to death.  Frankly, this may be my last trip there.  Even in the early Fall, there are too many inconsiderate people to make it enjoyable.  If you have never been there, you Must go.  'Nuff said.