After packing up camp at Canyon Campground, we hiked to the brinks of Lower and Upper Yellowstone Falls and had a late lunch at the Canyon Lodge Dining Room. We then took a drive to Norris via Virginia Cascades and drove the southwestern section of the Grand Loop Road on our way back toward our new campsite in Grant Village.
Sleeping In (Sort Of)
Even though I didn’t get to sleep until midnight last night, I still woke up at dawn, this time with a headache. I get those sometimes, mainly from muscles in my back and neck being messed up by car accidents and too much sitting for work. Usually I apply pressure in the right places and my headache subsides, but today that wasn’t working for some reason…so I just took it slow and endured the pain.
I looked over at Becky, still sleeping. Yesterday we got up at 5:30am, but I had kept us go-go-going so much that we got to bed too late to do it again today. Becky needed recovery time, and I was glad to see her getting it. She and I were both up and about around 8am. I started a fire so we could have a real breakfast and so Becky could make some real coffee. I also took the opportunity to set up my pano rig so I could get a 360 shot of our campsite.
This was just not our morning though. The late morning lighting conditions weren’t working for me, and I kept forgetting steps in creating my 360 shot. Becky’s campfire coffee percolator got too hot on the fire and the handle melted. Our frustrations were getting the better of us. My headache still lingered. We still had a lot of packing to do. And I still hadn’t talked with Becky about how to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s Yellowstone Mania. All this anxiety got us super grumpy, but things were good once we let each other chill out for a few minutes. Once we really got to packing, the day got steadily better.
360-degree panorama of Site J193 at
Canyon Campground in Yellowstone National Park. Despite my frustrations, this actually turned out well! Click and drag to look around & click the arrows to see a different location. Click the top right button to go full-screen.
Packing Up at Canyon Campground
This pack-up was messier than the last one though. It had rained quite a bit while we were out yesterday. We got some water inside our tent, but by now everything was dry. The outside, however, was still wet in spots and the tarp underneath was completely wet with tree debris stuck all over it.
This is where I’d like to leave an endorsement for a $2.07 hand broom and dustpan set I bought over 15 years ago when I moved into my first apartment. It wasn’t great for sweeping my kitchen floor back then, but it works perfectly for so many things when you’re camping! Every time we pack up the tent, I use it to sweep all the fuzz and debris on the floor. I use it to brush off all the bugs, needles, and leaves on the outside of the tent. I can even use the brush to help my tent dry faster by spreading out the water beads.
Unfortunately for my trusty dustpan, I overestimated its abilities. When we arrived, I used it to shovel ashes out of the center of our fire ring and it worked great. I actually made a pile of them next to the ring so I could use them if I needed to put out a fire. Unlike back East, it’s very dry throughout much of the West, making everything from the grass to the brush to the trees quite flammable. As a result, campers are instructed to extinguish all fires before they leave their site or go to sleep for the night, either by dousing with water or covering with dirt. After cleaning out the tent, I thought that I better shovel those dry ashes from our first night onto the fire to put it out. Easy peazy, right?
Well, the rain had soaked my dusty ash pile and turned it into something more like hard clay. I didn’t expect this, and so I dug in hard and shattered my faithful dustpan. 🙁 I was so angry! I still needed this thing for the rest of our trip, and now it was broken. Becky doused the fire with water after this fail, leaving a pool of boiling water but no smoldering ashes behind.
OK, so maybe it was actually after we put the fire out that the day really started to improve. One of the last things we packed up was our tent and tarp. As I folded each part of the tent, I used the hand broom to clear off the tree junk and a towel to wipe it dry. For the last little bit, Becky just held the tent up for me while I brushed and dried it. After the tent was neatly in its bag, I swept off the picnic table at the vacant campsite next to us and draped our tarp over it so I could brush off one side. I then folded it in half to brush debris off of the other side and off the table again. Then I flipped the tarp and cleaned the other side. Finally, I had a relatively clean, dry tarp to fold and put into its bag.
So on a big or a little trip, never underestimate the usefulness of a good hand broom and dustpan!
Back to Yellowstone Falls
Ravens were a common site anywhere they could find scraps…either from humans or other animals in the park.
Now that our campsite was packed into the car, we drove out to the main road and back over to the parking area near the brink of Lower Yellowstone Falls. It was a late start for us, arriving about noon. I wanted to hike in and see more of the canyon, including the Upper Falls. I popped open the trunk and began rummaging through my photo bag, thinking of which pano head and lens to bring.
That’s when I remembered the day before and said to myself, “Screw it! I’m tired, and I need to just relax and have some fun, and stop trying to be a documentarian for every hour of the trip.” I decided I’d bring my camera and only my 24-70mm lens, which is plenty versatile and won’t get me too hung up shooting panos.
I informed Becky of my decision. She smiled and replied, “I like ‘Screw It’ Day!”
She thought it was cool for me to grab a camera and shoot stuff, but that the day be more about us and less about the ‘photo shoot’. I liked the sound of it too.
A Bug’s Life
Before we got going, Becky made preparations sitting in the passenger seat of our car with the door wide open. While she was looking down intently, I saw this big black bug with giant antennas land on the dashboard almost directly in front of her! In a hopefully unstartling tone I told her, “You might want to look up, there’s a big black bug in front of you.” She sorta freaked out and slowly backed out of the car. I was in no position to reach it. It stayed where it landed for the most part. Becky grabbed a map and tried to scoop it away, but it crawled deeper into the car! It stopped in a little nook on the side of the center console, but it was dangerously close to crevices where it could hide behind the dashboard. This required a better approach, or this thing was going to die somewhere back there and possibly stink up the car (glad it wasn’t ours).
Becky acted fast and cut the top off a big empty water jug we hadn’t yet thrown out. She then easily scooped him up and let him go outside of the car. We kept the scoop in case we needed it again. The bottom of the jug fit a loaf of bread perfectly, so we used it to protect our bread from getting smashed in the back. So I suppose you could say she killed two bugs with one jug!
Brink of the Lower Falls
People gathering to look down from the brink of Lower Yellowstone Falls
It’s a 600-foot drop but less than a half-mile hike to get to the top of Lower Yellowstone Falls. This area was far more congested than anywhere else we’d hiked so far. We could definitely tell this was like the Disney World of national parks with the casual manner in which several people took the paved trail. I had three people nearly collide with me on the switchback down, and Becky just missed getting hit in the face with a selfie stick.
In spite of the number of people and the rudeness of a few of them, the top of the falls was incredible! It’s amazing how fast the water moves through the upper canyon toward the Lower Falls. The sound of the water was just enormous. And the view of the canyon with a partly cloudy blue sky above was just awesome and unforgettable!
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River from the brink of the Lower Falls
Continue reading RealImaginaryWest Day 10 – Grand Canyons, Geysers & Grant Village in Yellowstone
