The Call of the Trail


July 21st, 2017--We learned from our mistakes, and so on Friday we decided to leave an hour later so we could use the generator at the campsite to have breakfast and make coffee before leaving for the day. Our first task was to hike the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.


Mark, Michelle, and Kevin figuring it all out.

This turned out to be a much bigger job than we realized. By the day's end we logged over 22, 000 steps, and that doesn't tell the whole story of the hike because many of those steps were on steep trails. With little ones in the group we counted this as huge accomplishment!


At one point on the hike we came across some osprey nests that were amazingly close to the popular trail.

Osprey chick just beneath an overlook on the trail

We hiked the North Rim Trail, Red Rock Trail, walked to the falls that we saw when we first came into the park and stopped at Artist's Point, as well as Grandview and Lookout Point trails.

Difficult to see, but the avatars wanted a photo-op by the waterfall

See on the left side of the falls how there's a strip of green where the rest is white?
The water has worn away the stone so much that it is quite a bit deeper than the rest, allowing for the green stripe

So often on this trip our favorite times were ones that happened by chance, something we couldn't have planned. Lunch on this day was just this. Exhausted from hiking we needed to have lunch somewhere and decided to stop at an overlook.


This turned out to be a beautiful picnic area next to a rushing river and falls. This was the Wapiti Falls Trailhead and it had butterflies, wildflowers, and just enough serenity to rejuvenate ourselves for the second half of the day.

Bananagrams: the number one game played on the trip

Up next on the schedule was Lamar Valley, considered by many to be the American Serengeti. On the way there we had DJ Michelle playing the tunes, the kids played Spot It and Bananagrams, and we were reading more about the park in the Yellowstone Expedition book that Mark's brother let them borrow. Good thing we were reading up on it otherwise we wouldn't have come across the Chocolate Pot off the side of the road where the minerals in the soil look like the geyser is cooking up a sweet treat.


We also stopped at Calcite Falls and it was beautiful. This is obviously not the falls part of the river, but the landscape here was really striking. Every mile you go in Yellowstone is different from the mile before.


At one point in Lamar Valley we came across many herds of buffalo. We jumped out of the RV to take picture and saw a guy break the number one rule: don't get close to wildlife. He walked out onto the plain and climbed a rock. At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but unbeknownst to him a renegade bison was breaking off from the heard and came between his car and the rock he was standing on. It ended safely, but many minutes passed where you could tell the guy was freaking out.


We headed back to the campsite to have a delicious dinner prepared by Michelle--chicken stroganoff, salad, and bread. The kids played Telestrations around the fire. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the day.


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