Before we start... Kim reminded me that you can click on the photos and videos and they'll come up much larger which makes them more impressive. Then, just click the X in the upper right to close and go back to the entry.
On with the Show!
These videos and photos are of the Lower Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
This is the more spectacular one of the two, mostly because it's drop is way longer (taller?).
The river is the Yellowstone River which comes out of the very large Yellowstone Lake (are we seeing a pattern here?). Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi River and eventually down into the Gulf of America. An amazing journey.
Here's a great shot from Google Earth showing the vast canyon looking upriver towards the Lower Falls that shows how steep the canyon is.
And a photo that was taken from Artist's Point on the south side.
One from the north side of the canyon. It's pretty impressive.
In order to get way down to the Observation area, there's a trail called...The Brink of Lower Falls Trail.
Here's where the trail ends up so you can look over at the falls.
Part of the trail heading down
Going up was much more of a challenge
You can see how crowded it gets at the railing. I like to keep my distance from other people when looking of the edge.
It's a steep, 0.7-mile out-and-back hike that offers breathtaking views of the Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Length: Approximately 0.7 miles (1.1 kilometers) round trip.
Elevation Change: The trail descends about 600 feet (180 meters) over a short distance, making it a steep hike.
Difficulty: Generally considered moderately challenging due to the steepness, especially on the return hike.
The darnest thing about the trail is the footwear people wear. I saw open toed sandals, flip-flops (!), lots of crocks, flat lady's shoes. Amazing. I did notice that those people went slower than most.
So, here's some videos of the river and the falls.
A LOT of water going over !!
And...just a few extra photos thrown in here for your enjoyment.
This is what is called a "Bison Jam"
Here's the cause.
We could probably put out a dozen entries on Yellowstone alone, but this will have to do it for now.
We stayed a week and covered only a fraction of the park. It does get very crowded, so we entered before 7 every morning. After that time, the line backed up for miles, even before the entry.
After going through some cold weather in Wisconsin and southern Minnesota, we finally got to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota where it was 65 during the day but over 35mph winds!
Soooo, what’s with the name "Badlands"?
For hundreds of years, the Lakota people have called this area mako sica, which literally translates to “bad lands.” When early French fur trappers passed through this area, they called the area les mauvaises terres a traveser (‘bad lands to travel across’).
Can you see why it is called "bad lands to travel across"?
Let's look at the layers in the Badlands and see how they came to be over the last 77 million years. If you really are interested in more detail, this site is a great reference:
The Pierre Shale, which forms the bottommost layer of the park’s geology, was deposited 75-69 million years ago. It was laid down by a shallow inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway. This seaway stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, covering most of the modern Great Plains in shallow, warm water.
On top of the Pierre Shale sit the Yellow Mounds, which are just an altered version of the Pierre Shale despite their striking differences in appearance. After the Western Interior Seaway drained North into the Arctic Ocean, the leftover shales weathered into soils.
The Chadron Formation, consisting largely of light gray claystone beds, was deposited about 37-34 million years ago across an ancient floodplain.
The Brule Formation, deposited 34-30 million years ago, represents a cooler and drier time in geologic history.
Above the Brule lies the Sharps Formation, the youngest geologic formation of the park at 30-28 million years old. The base of the Sharps Formation is the RockyfordAsh, a volcanic tuff formed from ash that came from eruptions in the Great Basin, where Utah and Nevada are today.
In order to see the Badlands, there's a 20+ road that takes you from east to west, or west to east with many pullouts where the views above can be seen.
This hill looks pretty solid but....
....here's what it looks like close up. It's all crumbly and like popcorn.
Here's a few extra photos to give you a sense of how wonderful this place is to visit.
Also, if you're in the right place at the right time you might see these guys....
We've been here twice before, this being our third visit and it's better each time. Hope you enjoyed this quick look at The Badlands of South Dakota.
steve/kim/katie
oh, some oddities along the interstate were pretty cool too.
We came to Yellowstone for the geysers and Old Faithful and ended up taking more photos of the wildlife (animals) than anything. They were everywhere! What a treat to see them in their natural habitat.
Trails? We don't got to have no stinkin' trails when we got a road we can walk on.
We saw herds up to 45 in quantity.
Having a ball making a dust cloud...kinda reminds me of Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoon strip.
...and lots of calves...
Mom! Wait up!
This is looking out our passenger window.
Awwwww....cute huh?
Interesting that baby horses (colts) look like a horse and baby cows (calves) look like a cow but baby bison (also called calves) don't look like a miniature bison. Cuter for sure.
Mountain Bluebird, Male
Mountain Bluebird, Female. Babies inside maybe?
Raven...very large...and they were a lot of them.
Sandhill Crane. So awkward on the ground...
but very very horizontal and sleek when flying. (It's right in the middle of the photo flying from left to right).
Great Blue Heron
Mallard Duck, Male
Canadian Goose
Marmot hiding in the rocks
A herd of Elk was at this stream almost every day.
Coyotes
One of the most fun we had was watching all the tourists (like us) get all geeky when they saw an animal.
This is called a "Bear Jam" because the people come to a screeching halt and pull off the side of the road (well, most of them anyway) to take pictures. Rangers, like the one in the orange safety vest, are constantly trying to prevent auto accidents....and to make sure no one hassles the animals.
Our new additions to the family. "Buff" on the left and "Smokey Junior" on the right....and proud new parent, Kim, in the middle.
We'll get to the spectacular waterfalls and the plentiful hot springs in the next blog post.
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