Saturday 7-12

We went to the Canyon area, stopping at the visitor center where we heard a ranger talk about wildlife in the park and safety around wildlife. We learned if meeting a bear, when to make noise and stand our ground versus when to back away (never run away like a scared baby elk). If attacked, you are first supposed to play dead, and then if it starts to eat you, you're supposed to fight back and punch the bear in the nose. Hmm. 

So far between the Tetons and Yellowstone, we've seen quite a bit of wildlife, including moose, bison, elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, a marmot, ground squirrels, chipmunks, chickarees (like a red squirrel), pikas, and various birds. No bears. Bison poop is everywhere in Yellowstone, including our campground and all around the geysers and hot springs, though we only saw them out in fields. 

We next went to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the Upper and Lower Falls. There was still a lot of spring runoff so the river was high and the Falls were impressive. We walked down a path that dropped 600 feet elevation into the canyon, where we could see the "brink of    Lower Falls". Lower Falls is 300 feet , twice the height of Niagara Falls, which the boys remember from our trip 2 years ago. 

In the afternoon we went for a swim in the Firehole River. This was a neat swimming hole in a small canyon. It's supposedly warmed by area hot springs. It felt cold, but not as cold as the glacial runoff lake we swam in in the Tetons!