Day 9: Our Biggest Day Yet!

Today began with Steve cooking us all bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast, which was an awesome beginning to a pretty cold morning and our planned hike around the North Rim of the Canyon.

Before our hike, we stopped off at the Brink of the Upper Falls. WOW!!! Just a breath-taking hike with a dead-end on the ledge of cliff (which had built-up stone walls along the sides), with amazing views of the river as it’s white rolling peaks charged through the canyon and dropped off at the waterfall. We just lingered there for quite some time, taking in the view and enjoying the soothing effect of listening to the falls.

Then we made another stop right next to the trailhead.... an observation area called Grand View, which is where we enjoyed one of the most amazing experiences that we have had during the trip. We noticed a bald eagle that was perched in a tree way down near the base of the canyon, but it was pretty hard to see him without binoculars. Then, just a couple of minutes later, he took flight almost as if he intended to put on a show! He was gliding from side-to-side in the canyon, going higher and higher as he flew, and then disappeared around a far-off bend in the canyon. We all felt like we had just had a once-in-a-lifetime experience with that one!

But we weren't done yet! On the way back out, we ran into more great luck! On the flat surface of a huge rock structure that rose up at least 6 stories from the base of the canyon, we discovered a nest with a young white-headed bird inside! At first we thought it was another bald eagle, but after viewing the bird with our binoculars and talking with some other hikers who had also stopped to take a look, we realized that it was actually an Osprey (a fish-eating bird with which I was not previously familiar until I saw the wildlife chart in the kids’ Jr. Ranger workbooks).

And, by the way, at this point all of the kids are budding naturalists! The Jr. Ranger Program at each of the National Parks is actually pretty great. I can’t believe how much they’ve learned about the history of the parks, the wildlife there, ecosystems, conservation and geology. And the more they learn about each of our destinations, the more than want to discover for themselves during our hikes and when they are just kind of hanging out at our campsites (not that we have done very much of the latter – we pretty much stay on the go!). It’s pretty cool!

We had a quick picnic lunch at the trailhead and then, at last, we began our hike around the North Rim. The path overlooked the depths of the Canyon all the way around, so we stopped at various spots just to take in the spectacular views and look for some wildlife while we were at it. A couple of the pictures we took during the hike will end up framed in our house for sure, but probably not the one I took of my Mom acting like she was falling into the depths of the canyon with Steve standing over her with an evil look as if he has just done her in…. yeah, that might just be one for the album.

After passing only 2 other people while we hiked the North Rim Trail, we ended up at our destination – Inspiration Point. It was amazing how many people were there! While we were planning the trip, we had read that most people who visit Yellowstone will just drive their cars to each of the best sites that have pull-off points or parking lots within yards of them, but they will not hike a single trail. Now, here we were on the trail that our guide book listed as the #1 hike at Yellowstone, and that fact would certainly seem to ring true! How sad! It’s just not anywhere near the same experience if you’re in your car most of the time!

So we went back to the RV, and started traveling toward our next adventure for the day, which was scheduled to begin at Roosevelt Corrals… a 30-minute chuck wagon ride into Pleasant Valley where we would enjoy an authentic western cookout. That being said, we ended up stopping for a quick hike on yet another trail on the way so that we could see a waterfall called Tower Fall
, but we had to settle for the view from the observation deck with all of those “Yellowstone Flunkies” (ha) because the trail was closed… it had been washed away at some point and was in need of repair. Oh well, at least were able to see another beautiful waterfall, however briefly, before we were back on our way to being a little early for the dinner bell at the corral.

The chuck wagon was pulled by 2 horses across some beautiful terrain where we saw some yellow-bellied marmots sunning themselves on some rocks, and a herd of buffalo grazing in the distance. Our “wrangler,” a recent college graduate from New Hampshire, told us some wonderful stories about the history of this particular area of the park which made the 30-minute ride pass pretty quickly. And we learned a lot. Even more important to some of us, however, is that we learned that she drove her New Hampshire-plated car all the way to Yellowstone.... for, you see, at this point we had identified 47 state license plates (plus 3 Canadian provinces) but we were missing Mississippi, West Virginia and, oh yes, New Hampshire. Score! We were definitely going to walk off part of this yet-to-be-consumed chow by finding her car outside of her cabin at the Corral!



The cookout itself exceeded all of our expectations… wow! The Yellowstone employees were fantastic, and definitely acted and dressed like authentic cowboys…. there was even a “singing cowboy” who entertained us the entire time with his western-themed music, as he played his guitar. Everyone was welcome to eat as much steak (cooked to order), corn bread, Roosevelt baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, corn, apple crisp, cowboy coffee (the strongest I’ve had), hot chocolate or other drinks as they could possibly consume, and the atmosphere was just fantastic. The kids, as kids will always do, made a few friends and the singing cowboy taught all of them how to yodel. To top it all off, the weather was perfect… beautiful sunshine (the sun doesn’t set here until almost 11:pm), and a temperature that fell from warm to a crisp light jacket temp. Just an awesome experience!

As the chuck wagon pulled back into the Roosevelt Corral, we learned from our wrangler that we were just a short drive from a prime location to look for Grizzly Bears (from your car, of course!), and that we would be getting back at the prime time to see them out and about as well. So, after officially locating that New Hampshire license plate of course, we were off on yet another adventure…. A “bear hunt”! Let’s go!

So we just started driving to where she told us to drive, with 7 pairs of eyes duly peeled, and – of course – we found that Grizzly Bear in just a few minutes. Yep, chewing on an animal carcass about 100 yards from a point in the road where about 20 cars were already pulled off on the side to take a look and get a picture. So much for the “hunting” part, since we clearly saw the cars before the bear, but it was thrilling and terrifying and amazing to happen upon that bear. Sooooo cool!

So after ALL of that excitement, the kids were all sound asleep before the RV came to a stop again at our little spot in Canyon campground for the last time. Tomorrow we’ll be staying on the other side of the park until we head out for the Grand Tetons.