Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Well I hadn't realised that Yellowstone had it's very own grand canyon although the image of the Lower Falls is pretty darn 'famous'. We carried on driving round the loop road yesterday and now are staying in the canyon area of the park - it's a much nicer campsite and village.

Did our first hike out yesterday morning before we left the last campsite - that area is 'the' area for grizzlies so we were shouting, singing and clapping our way along the river like lunatics for 7 miles (thankfully we didn't meet anyone on the trail to witness our behaviour!, nor did we meet any bears) The trails are shockingly empty as soon as you get more than a mile from a road - great for us but sad when Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres big - too many people are missing out on so much. (and really we didn't scratch the surface with our hikes out). As soon as we were back and the RV and driving off we got stuck in traffic - absolute carnage - more than the bison jam so we figured more than bison must be the cause and lo and behold - a grizzly bear foraging in the field no more than 50 yards from the road - so cool!

In the canyon area we've been on another hike today and cruising around on the bike visiting the view points for the canyon and the falls (300-odd foot tall and pretty wow) The view is spectacular and I just can't get enough of it - already been back to the viewpoint twice in varying light. Spent the evening in the lounge bar of the lodge - need I say more.....