10/9/14

This was our last weekend before we leave for Washington and Oregon on Monday the 13th. We decided to hike with our coworkers one last time on Tuesday, after seeing off three of our other coworkers, who left a week earlier than the rest of us.

Penny and I had not hiked Storm Point or to Natural Bridge, both on the east side of the park. Our hiking partners had, but they wanted to do them again, so that's where we went. Both are relatively short hikes an neither have significant hills to climb, so we were able to do both in one day.

On our way to the first trail head we saw a male grizzly bear walking across the meadow just west of Canyon Junction. His name is Scarface because of all the scarring he has on his face and the lack of one ear. We assume it's because he got into a lot of fights in his earlier years. He is now going on 25 years old. He has been hanging out in the Canyon area since he was young.

Storm Point is at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. There is a town of Marmot that live near the point, but they apparently go into hibernation early and we didn't see a single one. Our hiking partners said there were dozens of Marmots in a pile of rocks near the point, when they were here earlier in the summer. The hike is a pleasant walk along the northwest corner of Yellowstone Lake, with a loop back through the forest.

 

After the hike, we drove east to an observation point that gives a view to the south end of the lake and beyond, all the way to the Tetons.

 

After the observation point, we drove back a few miles west and had lunch on the north shore of the lake. After lunch we drove to the trail head to Natural Bridge, near Bridge Bay. Not far from where we lunched we saw another grizzly bear coming down the hill, foraging for roots and berries. It came within 20 feet of the car.

Natural Bridge is an interesting feature, formed by water erosion and freeze/thaw cycles.

 

There is a trail that leads up to the right of where I was standing, that goes up to the top of the rocks. It was getting late, so we didn't go that far but we are already planning on going all the way up next year.

On the way back to the trail head Penny saw a Grey Jay and got a nice photo of it.

Wednesday, Penny and I went back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and hiked Uncle Tom's Trail and down to the Brink of the Lower Falls. Both of those hikes are climbs of 600 or more feet, so they gave our legs a good workout.

I've shown photos we took on Uncle Tom's trail when we hiked it earlier in the year, but we hadn't hiked to the Brink of the Lower Falls until now. The first photo is from the brink of the falls, looking upstream from the observation deck. The second is looking at the brink of the falls and the third is looking downstream after the falls.

 

We will be leaving Yellowstone Monday morning, making our way back to the Seattle area over the following few days. We may not get there until sometime the week of the 20th, but there's a chance we'll get there sooner. We won't be driving for long hours and we don't want to drive every day either. If we find a nice place to stop, we may stay there a couple of days. We'll let you know when we get there and we will keep in touch.