We took a 70 mile tour.

Today we drove north to Canyon Lodge.  We went past Fishing Bridge and the marina there, where we had our first lunch.  Remember how there were two bison that day?  Well, today there was a crowd.




Then we went to Hayden Plateau and stopped along with lots of other folks to watch the bison herds on both sides of the road. There are lots of babies in the herd. Bison, wolves, and grizzly bears were all at one time endangered and are all recovered now in Yellowstone.



We checked into our room at Canyon Lodge and toured around the settlement. We looked at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from the North Rim, seeing both the Upper and Lower Falls.  It is gorgeous.  Younger and thinner than the Grand Canyon in Arizona but still impressive.



Lower Falls of Grand Canyon

After lunch and nap we went for a long drive.  We drove 70 miles around the rest of the interior.  We went from the Grand Canyon to Tower/Roosevelt.  The road was narrow and curvy and high.  It curved up and down mountains.  We were stuck behind a slow driver, and a driver behind us was impatient.  So he passed a bunch of cars to get away from the slowpoke.  I felt sympathy for the slower person, but it was nerve wracking to follow him. Usually slower drivers pull over and let other cars pass, but he did not.

From Tower/Roosevelt we drove to Mammoth, where there is a huge (mammoth) hot springs area
and the Park Service Administration offices.  The air was hazy, and we smelled smoke the whole way.


Here is the main street of Mammoth, where the officers' housing was.

This was a military base when the cavalry was called in to keep order and remove poachers from 1886 - 1918, before there was a park service.  Now I think park service people have these houses.  The population of the town was 263 in 2016. It is an appealing town, similar to Annapolis though much smaller. The houses were designed by Robert Reimer, who designed the Old Faithful Inn.

After Mammoth we turned south to Norris and then east back to Canyon.  We completed a counter clockwise circle, seeing all the conifers - spruce, lodge pole pine, and Douglas fir - many bison, Canada geese, some deer, and hawks.

We were glad to be back home.  Tomorrow we have more time to explore the canyon and hike.


Another view of the Grand Canyon