July 8th – North Rim and South Rim (Part 1)
Weather: 65/38
Driving Route:
Today could have ended in disaster, all for my lack of planning, or at least my thinking therefore it must be so. Well, maybe disaster is too strong a word, but it certainly would have been a struggle. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, only not about food. I forgot. Well not exactly that either. And none of this is about food no matter how it sounds. I’m almost too tired to explain myself. Maybe if I start at the beginning. That should keep the hamster at bay.
After all the reading I’ve done on the national parks, for sure no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, a deep chasm with two beautiful waterfalls. All the guidebooks say it. All of the online sites say it. All the blogs and vlogs I’ve read say it. And you can just imagine what the people that have been there say about it. And after today I’ll add my agreement to that.
You get numerous memorable views of the canyon by hiking along North Rim Trail, which stretches 3.8 miles over a paved and unpaved path crossing the northwest wall of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River (with just 250 feet of elevation change). But, after two days of long hikes I had originally planned to drive the North and South rims, stopping at the various pull outs and just walking to the views.
Oh … my … freaking … gosh. It was obvious, even starting as early as we did, that crowds and traffic was going to be more than a little problematic. I can’t swing the Ark into just any little space so I decided we’d hike the North Rim instead after all.
Some sections of North Rim Trail parallel North Rim Drive, the road that allows visitors to drive right up to some of the north rim’s exceptional overlooks. The road makes it easy to hike North Rim Trail in segments, our original plan, but a straight through hike wasn’t beyond our capabilities or time so that’s what we did instead. Away from the road, North Rim Trail crosses pine forests perched atop precarious canyon walls. That description comes from one of the guidebooks and I can’t top it so I’ll use it. The trail connects several named and noteworthy viewpoints while passing unnamed views that will stop you in your tracks, and that’s a fact.
At it’s northeast end, North Rim Trail gets off to a stunning start at Inspiration Point, and then runs southwest past the Upper Falls of Yellowstone Falls, reaching a bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River for the south rim. Persistent hikers can continue up South Rim Trail for the opposing view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Hikers with less time can exclude the final southwestern leg of North Rim Trail, which follows a calmer section of the Yellowstone River upstream from the canyon, and reduce the hike to the 3.3 miles between Inspiration Point and Upper Falls. I didn’t want to miss anything so we left it in. Arrogance 101, or maybe Stupid 101, not sure which is a better descriptor. For me it would have been fine and dandy to make it a 6.6 to 7.6-mile round trip hike. I didn’t put enough thought into it for Benny’s sake. Still honestly feel like kicking my own butt over it.
Starting from the top of the stairs leading to the panoramic views at Inspiration Point, North Rim Trail parts with the road and crosses a forest of lodgepole pines. The forest is quiet, and surprisingly peaceful considering how close it is to the dangerous canyon wall. Freaked me out a little but Benny understands “the rules” and so long as I kept him to the inside of the trail and there weren’t too many people it turned out to be less nerve-wracking than I was worried it was going to be when I got my first glimpse of the trail
After curving through the forest, the trail passes directly along the edge of the canyon, where just a few feet separate the dirt path from a sheer thousand-foot drop to the Yellowstone River. Gak. Incredible but geez Louise. The views are beautiful and daunting. A created a new word … unthesaurusable. There’s just no describing the views with any adequacy. You view an acute V-shaped canyon with bright orange, yellow, and pink walls surrounding a river of swift dark blue water that are capped by powerful white rapids. It is only three-quarter of a mile across the chasm to the south rim but even that is deceptive. Starting at the Upper Falls of Yellowstone Falls, the Yellowstone River carves a deep 20-mile gash across the pine-covered landscape, and the North Rim Trail delivers exceptional views of the most stunning section of the canyon.
After one and a third miles you hit pavement and arrive at Grand View Point, the next named lookout along the trail. Switching from dirt to concrete was absurdly welcome given the crowds we were hiking in. North Rim Drive parallels the trail as you continue to hike past Osprey Point to a spur trail to Lookout Point and Red Rock Point (1.7 miles from Inspiration Point). The guidebook said the view from Lookout Point should not be missed, so we turned left on a 0.15-mile round trip spur to enjoy the overlook. It was a postcard view of Lower Falls that we took plenty of pictures of. We also hiked the 0.75-mile round trip spur down to Red Rock Point for a closer look at the 308-foot tier of Yellowstone Falls. More pictures. Lots of more pictures. We also took some selfies (front and back) in a couple of lulls of the crowds.
Continuing on North Rim Trail, we passed more views of Lower Falls. After North Rim Drive curves away from the trail, there was a spur trail heading down to the brink of Lower Falls. This difficult addition to the trail comes 2.5 miles from Inspiration Point and requires hikers descend 600 feet over 3/8 of a mile to reach the Lower Falls. I suppose we could have been satisfied with the views from the top of the trail but … nah! Benny and I both wanted an up close and personal view of Lower Falls and we still had lots of wiggle energy to expend. Coming back up the spur trail wasn’t the easiest hiking we’ve ever done but it was worth it for the views we got.
At that point North Rim Trail dips across a depression in the side of the canyon caused by Cascade Creek. We crossed the creek and headed uphill to a view looking back toward Crystal Falls, a 130-foot drop through pines toward the Yellowstone River. The trail emerges from the woods once more at the parking area for the Brink of the Upper Falls Trail. Yep, more mileage on our boots.
The Brink of Lower Falls Trail switchbacks steeply down a mostly forested section of the canyon to an observation platform perched at the top of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Here the river plunges 308 feet into the heart of the canyon with the sound of thunder. It was a spectacular view.
From the Brink of Lower Falls parking area, the trail (which technically doesnt begin until the end of the first switchback) drops more than 300 feet in 0.4 miles. Yeah, it was a little steep said the hamster in sublime understatement. A very popular trail, it was crowded but enjoyable. What made it even more crowed was the direction of the one-way North Rim Road was changed mid-morning making this the first stop on the road.
Reading from a small guidebook I carried I told Benny that in 1887, Owen Wister, gathering stories and inspiration later used in his classic western novel,
The Virginian, described Lower Falls this way: "This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The water falls . . . 300 feet into a caldron of rock . . . the spray floats out into a rainbow that melts away into many-colored moss, until you cannot discern which is moss and which rainbow."
“One of your grandfather’s favorite things to do was read westerns and historical novels in his down time … when raising me allowed him any down time. It was how he relaxed, and
The Virginian was one of his all-time favs. Your dad gave him a First Edition of the book for his birthday the year after he completed Basic Training. And one day, when you are older, I’ll make sure you have that book as well. Right now it is in storage in Jacksonville.”
“I can really have it?” he asked surprised.
“Sure. And when you are old enough maybe we can read it together. Dad would sometimes read it to me … when I managed to sit still long enough.”
Benny snickered at that because he’s heard stories his entire life about my sometimes less than stellar exploits as a kid. But at that point we wound up having to put all our efforts and attention into the trail ahead of us.
Many visitors stop there thinking it’s a short way to the viewpoint. More than a few were unprepared for how steep and difficult trail the trail turns out to be. It is a slow hike down and an even slower hike back up. But the views at the bottom are amazing, making it a must-do hike for those capable of it. And speaking of capable … on our way back up I had to play mule for a Dad that was overwhelmed when both of his kids pooped out and refused to budge. I took the younger of the two, and much to her two-year-old delight she used my braids as reins. I haven’t had to deal with “giddy up horsey” since Benny was that age, and I was pretty not thrilled to have her screeching in my ear the whole way up, but sometimes you just gotta help a stranger out.
Back at the top I turned over Little Miss Hot Mess in need of a Pull-Up changed to “Grammy” and wanted to stick a finger in my ear to make sure all the squeals were out. The Dad insisted on getting me a bottle of water and saying thank you.
“Seriously. Not a problem.”
“In your opinion,” he said. “I need my head examined. Next time I read the sign
before I start the trail.”
I chuckled. “Been there myself. Just look at it this way. Nap time will be a lot easier.”
“Oh now there’s a silver lining.”
I finally got shed of the nice people and Benny and I continued on where, once out of earshot, he made a comment along the lines of let’s not rescue so many people. Snicker. Snort. I had begun to feel the same way and admitted next time hopefully we can leave it to the park rangers or someone else can be the Good Samaritan. Which then necessitated me telling him the parable of the Samaritan, explaining it, and then both of us saying, “Oh well, maybe we might rescue someone again. Just hope it doesn’t have to be today.”
Passed the parking lot we continued on North Rim Trail, quickly reaching the mandatory turnoff to the stone viewing platform at the top of the 109-foot waterfall that sets off the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Yellowstone Falls is split into two tiers separated by a quarter mile. Due to a bend in the river, the longer 308-foot Lower Falls is not visible from the Upper Falls. Still there is a heck of a lot to see, especially the violent plunge of the water that begins from the Brink of the Upper Falls. The amount of water flowing over Upper Falls varies throughout the year. It is estimated that a minimum of 5,000 gallons of water flow over the waterfall each second during the dry fall season, and over 60,000 gallons during peak spring runoff. Despite how violent the waterfall looks, there are calming rainbows that appear in the swirling mist. There’s a life lesson in there for people that look is what Grandmother Barry would have said.
Beyond the Brink of the Upper Falls, North Rim Trail continues another 0.4 mile along the Yellowstone River up to a bridge (Chittenden Bridge) crossing over to the south side of the canyon. This is where I lost my commonsense, or so it appears in hindsight.
The guidebook said if your legs are feeling strong, you can hike up South Rim Trail to breathtaking overlooks like Point Sublime and Artist Point, or make an impressive staircase descent to the base of Upper Falls on Uncle Tom’s Trail. I looked at the traffic on the roads, thought about having to hike back to where we started only to make our way through the traffic and fight for a spot in the parking lots, and went, “Nah! We can hike it. We be tough enough.” Oh boy.