The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

This is part five of a travel series to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE!

Perhaps the most beautiful spot in all of Yellowstone is named after another one of America's natural wonders:  The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  If you are ever in Yellowstone, this is the one attraction you don't want to miss.

Looking at our trusty map I've been using in all my blog posts about Yellowstone, we continued on our journey of hitting all the highlights on the figure eight loop on Day Two.  We spent the night at Lake Hotels on Yellowstone Lake.  As soon as the sun started to rise, we headed upward, through Hayden Valley, and towards Canyon Village.  

Photo Credit

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has multiple overlooks and trails from which to view the falls and the canyon.  Because we were coming from the south east, we hung a right on South Rim Drive and stopped at the Upper Falls Viewpoints first.

Judging by the vast size of the parking lot, this must be pretty busy during tourist season.  But because it was the off season, plus it was so early in the morning, we had the whole place to ourselves.

The map below shows you all the stops, trails, and look out points of the Canyon.  

Next, we got back in the car and drove to the next look out point:  "Artists Point".  This was the best, most beautiful, and our favorite view of the falls and the canyon.  It seemed surreal.  Like we were looking at a painting instead of something in real life.  We never checked the best time of day to be there, but we must have hit it right, because the view was other-worldly.

Here are a couple of short videos taken from the Artists Point

Of course we had to take a couple of selfies to prove we were here!  Although I think these photos make it look more like we're standing in front of some fake scenery instead of the real deal. 😂

This next photo is looking at the other side of the canyon, opposite the falls.

After oohing and aahing for quite some time, and just soaking the beauty in, it was time to head back in the car and visit more of the overlooks.  We got back on South Rim Drive, and headed to the main figure eight loop road to see the Brink of the Upper Falls.  Now we were across the river, on the opposite side of our first stop in the morning.

This was the first time since arriving in Yellowstone we were actually walking a trail.  I wasn't worried about bears though, because the area was very civilized and there were plenty of people around by now.  The trails we were on were very steep and I was upset because I left my walking sticks in the car.  I thought the trail was so short I wouldn't need it, but they are crazy steep and walking sticks would have really helped.

The trail takes you right to the top of the falls.  It's incredible!

After viewing the Upper Falls, we then headed over to the Brink of the Lower Falls Trailhead.  It was another very steep trail down to the lower falls.

I included the photo below so you could get an idea of how steep this trail is.  My husband and I were literally hanging onto each for dear life trying not to slide down the hillside.  It was much easier going up than going down.

The view of the canyon was just incredible!

This entire area is "Get in your car, drive two minutes, get out, hike a bit, soak in the views, repeat".  All the parking lots were very large, so we always found a spot easily.  But again, it was during the off-season, but the parking was much nicer than it was for the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Our next stop:  Lookout Point

This is the view of Lookout Point;  not quite as incredible as Artist Point, but beautiful just the same.

This trail had lots of boardwalks and steps.

More selfies.  By now it was mid-morning so it warmed up and I could lose the jacket. 

If you don't like stairs, this might not be the trail for you. 😆

Back in our car again to our next stop:  Grand View

The Grand View was just a view of the Grand Canyon.  After everything else we saw this morning, this was the least impressive view to us.  I wonder if we started here, and then ended up at Artist Point if we would have felt differently.

This area has multiple overlooks of the canyon with short walks leading to them.

And the last stop for the day in this area:  Inspiration Point.  Definitely not as impressive as Artist Point.

This area did have a really cool new steel and wood overlook whose engineering and style we really admired.

And here's a couple more short videos.  The first one shows the view from the North Rim Trail and the second one is the Lower Falls Trail.  Enjoy!

 

We really loved the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  It was one of our favorite spots in the park.  I would highly recommend getting there early like we did to avoid the crowds and get the best pictures.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

For more information on Yellowstone, please check out these posts:

Old Faithful

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Firehole Canyon Drive

Fountain Paint Pot, Lake Hotel and Cabins, and Hayden Valley

Under the Sea Handmade Cards

Spellbinders came out with these really cool tunnel dies last year, that I thought were pretty unique, so I ordered a couple of them.  One is for underwater scenes and the other one I purchased was for sky scenes.  This week, I will share my Under-the-Sea cards I made with these new dies.

The main cutting die set is on the right and is called "Underwater Tunnel".  The die helps you create a 3D underwater scene.  It comes with an anchor die and some plant life, but I also purchased some coordinating die sets to go with it "Underwater Marine Life" and "Luna the Seahorse".

The tunnel dies are so versatile!  You can use just one or two of the dies to keep the card more slim, or all three.  The card below using only one die cut layer, which makes for a slimmer card and therefore easier to mail.  I stamped a water background in versamark, embossed it with clear embossing power, heat set, then ink blended over it.  The water bubble stamps and ink blending make a more realistic water look.  The top layer is popped up on dimensionals, then I just glued all my little pieces on.  

There is a sentiment stamp set that coordinates with this set, but I didn't buy it.  I tell you, you can go broke just buying all the "add ons" that come with one new die set.  So, I cheated, and just typed all the sentiments from the set onto my computer and printed them out. Ha!

My next card shows how I used the die set to make a shaker card!  Once again, I only used one layer mounted up on dimensionals with a piece of acetate in-between.  I did the same ink blending technique to create the bubbles.  I put sequins inside my shaker card.

And here is a card using all three die cuts.  Each layer is popped up on dimensionals so it ends up being a pretty thick diorama card.  I dry embossed waves on the white card stock and added bubble embellishments.

Now, when you cut that many holes in your card stock you end up with a lot of scraps, so the next few cards I will do the reverse to use up those scraps!

Here I just took the punched out pieces and glued them flat to the card.

For this card, I dry embossed all the scraps,

I had some old Cuttlebug sea die scraps too (the whale, crab, star fish, and little fish) so I decided to use them up too.

 These were such fun cards to make!  I really enjoyed working with these new tunnel dies!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Fountain Paint Pot, Lake Hotel and Cabins, and Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park

This is part four of a travel series to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE!

Fountain Paint Pot (Lower Geyser Basin)

This is the fourth and final post for Day One in Yellowstone.  Our goal was to see most of the highlights on the figure eight loop of Yellowstone in three days and we did!  

Now, if you look at my trusty little map I've been showing in every single post, we came in to Yellowstone from Cody (the East entrance).  We stopped at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Museum, drove around Yellowstone Lake, went to Old Faithful (Upper Geyser Basin), then the Grand Prismatic Spring (Midway Geyser Basin), took the Firehole Canyon Drive, then we drove OUT OF THE PARK exiting out the West Entrance to West Yellowstone.  It is about 14 miles to reach the exit.  We went to the town to have a Linner.  West Yellowstone is the cutest little town ever with shops, restaurants, and hotels (sorry I never took photos of the town).  In hindsight, I would have spent the night in West Yellowstone, then we could have enjoyed the town more.  But I was informed there were no hotels near the park (not true both West Yellowstone and Gardine have hotels) so I booked inside the park.  While enjoying my first Buffalo Burger (it was delicious, but I honestly couldn't taste the difference between buffalo or cow meat so it didn't justify the increased price) I looked on Google Maps and saw the closet route to our cabin in Yellowstone was closed.  I'm not sure if that was true or not, but we weren't willing to take the chance.  It could have been temporarily blocked due to animal crossings.  Anyhow, we decided not to risk it and instead of going through the center of the figure eight loop to reach our cabin, we went back the way we came.  It ended up being an hour drive from West Yellowstone to our cabin.

Photo Credit

Virginia Cascades

We were hoping that the road closure would open up by the time we reached the area, so we decided just to drive half way through the figure eight loop to see the Virginia Cascades.  It is a beautiful waterfall on the Gibbon River.

Unfortunately, by the time we were finished at the Virginia Cascades, Google Maps still showed the road closed, so we turned around and headed back in the direction we came when we first entered the park.

We decided to make the best of our return trip by stopping and seeing some highlights we missed, like the Lower Geyser Basin.  By now, it was almost dusk, and the people crowds really thinned out.  That was nice.  But the animal crowds increased!  Animals are more active around dawn and dusk, so if you want to see animals at Yellowstone, you need to be in the park around those times.   Right when we pulled in to the parking lot of the Lower Geyser Basin there was a huge herd of buffalo (sorry, no photos) trying to cross the sidewalk/trail to the Basin to get to the other side of the road.  There were tourists just standing around, so close to the buffalo, and there was one park ranger keeping an eye on the herd migration to make sure no one got injured.  I think this might be a regular night crossing for that herd of buffalo that's why the park ranger knew to be there at exactly the right time.

Anyway, the Lower Geyser Basin features the Fountain Paint Pot.  This is another nice boardwalk trail overlooking geysers, springs, pools, a fumarole, and the Fountain Paint Pot.  Unfortunately because it was getting dark and I was worried about finding our cabin in the dark, we only had time to walk to the Clepsydra Geyser and back. 

Image Credit

The boardwalk hike was very nice because of the lovely open surrounding landscape.  The Clepsydra Geyser is in the very first photo of this post, plus the photo below.  I've also included two short videos.  The first one shows the viewpoint of us just walking the boardwalk, the second one is of the Clepsydra Geyser itself.

Walking the Fountain Paint Pot Boardwalk 

Clepsydra Geyser

Well, now that we were done exploring on Day One, it was time for the hour long drive back to our cabin.  I have to say, Day One was the worst day for our cabin location, because on Day Two we only had a short drive in the morning to our next stop on the figure eight loop and Day Three we just had to drive out the south end of the park after a brief stop at the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  So it really wasn't that bad, and if the road had been open the first day, it would not have been such a long drive from West Yellowstone to our cabin.

Lake Hotel and Yellow Cabins

Lake Hotel is a humungous, gorgeous hotel located right on Yellowstone Lake.  It is Yellowstone's oldest operating hotel in the park, opening in 1891 and is listed on the National Historic Landmark.

It is such a large hotel, I couldn't even get a picture of it on one photo.  The top and bottom photos show the hotel from the front.   The next photo shows the hotel from the back.

The hotel is right in front of Yellowstone Lake so it has great views of the lake along with a nice walking path in front of the lake.

The next few photos show the hotel lobby.  The dining room was closed for renovations when we were there so we couldn't have dinner there.  That is why we drove to West Yellowstone for a Linner.  I don't think anyone was staying in the hotel when we were there, it seemed everyone was staying in a yellow cabin behind the hotel.  The hotel rooms are closed for renovation until June 27, 2025.

In the photo below is a large room that used to be the grand dining hall but now it's just filled with furniture.  There is also a bar area to order drinks.  The dining hall was moved to another part of the hotel.

It was a foggy morning when I took these photos, but you can see the beautiful Yellowstone Lake from inside.

The car port is also very elegant.  There are rocking chairs available to sit on and enjoy the view.

And here is one of the little yellow cabins where we stayed.  These are located right behind the hotel.  I'm wearing a dress because we took this photo the morning we left Yellowstone and we were headed to Jackson Hole for the day.  Yes, I was FREEZING.  It was the coldest morning ever, like in the thirties, but it warmed up to the mid sixties when we were in Jackson Hole.

The cabins are very simple and cute.  We actually really enjoyed them and thought they were very cozy and romantic.  There is no air conditioning, but we certainly didn't need it the time of year we were there.  There is heat, and we did need that.  The cabin has a fan, and a coffee maker (thank God) but no microwave or refrigerator.

The bathroom shower was pretty tiny, but I was grateful to even have my own private shower and I didn't have to use a public shower.

If you're wondering what/how we ate during our three days in Yellowstone, there are lots of restaurants/stores in the park, but we didn't eat at any of those.  They even have a coffee shop at Old Faithful.  We brought a ton of food with us, and a cooler.  We had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and for snacks/lunch we had apples and peanut butter, granola, beef jerky, that sort of stuff.  Then we would always go to a nearby town for a Linner, like West Yellowstone or Gardine.  Hubby always wanted to check out the old western towns anyway.

Well folks, we have finished Day One of Yellowstone!  It only took me four posts to cover one day.  Now onto Day Two, which I will keep brief.

Looking back at our trusty Yellowstone Map in the second photo of this post, we spent the night in Lake Village.  We are now going straight up, heading for the Canyon Village area to see the most magnificent waterfall in the park (that will be covered next week).  But to get there, first we have to drive through Hayden Valley.  This was the road that was closed the night before.  Now it was open.

                             Hayden Valley

Hayden Valley is absolutely stunning!  One of the prettiest areas in the park in my opinion. It is supposed to be one of the areas in the park where you go if you want to see wildlife;  here or Lamar Valley.  We were there at dawn, and we couldn't see any animals up close, but we could see them in the distance.  There were a few people with cameras with telephoto lenses and binoculars were at all the look out points searching for animals.

Even though we couldn't see any animals up close (just dark blobs of what we thought could be animals), the place seemed absolutely magical at dawn.  It was so quiet and peaceful.

Well I hope you enjoyed Day One of our visit to Yellowstone National Park!

For more information on Yellowstone, please check out these posts:

Old Faithful

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Firehole Canyon Drive

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!