Our second day in Yellowstone was very much anticipated. We were going to visit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and go to a Cowboy Cookout. The Cowboy Cookout is considered a must do if you have kids. So we made our reservation about six months before the trip.
We started our day with a huge breakfast at the Inn's dining hall. LeAnn, Abby and I had the breakfast buffet while Ian had a huge stack of pancakes. We then made a quick stop at the general store to get supplies for a picnic. We then hit the road and headed over to the canyon.
When we first got to the Canyon Village, we were greeted by a huge buffalo who decided the parking lot was a good place to stand....in the middle of the road. He had traffic backed up for a while. The canyon is being formed by the Yellowstone River and has two huge waterfalls. It has a one way road on each side that gives you several stops and short walks that give you the best views of the falls, river and canyon. The walls of the canyon are made of a yellow rock, hence the name Yellowstone. Every view is breathtaking and of course LeAnn took several pictures. It was one of my favorite things to see. During the morning we traveled along the north rim. We took several small walks down to edge of each of the falls and lookout points. It was an amazing morning.
For lunch we had a picnic at a rest area at the beginning of the south rim. While there, two buffalo meandered down from a large pasture above us. They got fairly close, but decided not to get to close. We then drove along the south rim of the canyon. This side doesn't have as many stops as the north rim, but it more than makes up for it with the views. The best view of the canyon is at Artist Point. An amazing view of the canyon with the Lower Falls is the back.
After we finished with the south rim of the canyon, we headed to the northern part of the park and the Roosevelt Corral. Here we loaded on to covered wagons and headed out to a secluded valley for the Cowboy Cookout. It was so much fun. The kids loved every second of it. On the way out to cookout, Abby and Ian got to set up front with the driver. The guide told us several interesting stories on the way out and back. On our trip we saw buffalo, antelope, and yellow-bellied varmints. Once out to the site, we were serenaded with campfire songs. The food was amazing. We had steak, baked beans, slaw, corn muffins, baked apples, corn on the cob, and watermelon. It was delicious. Ian even ate steak for the first time. I, of course, had to convince him it was just a hamburger in a different form. He tried it and loved it. The kids got to run around with the other kids and played in a stream that ran through the valley.
After we got back to the corrals, we headed back toward our hotel, which is the southwestern part of the park. Since it was still daylight, we stopped by and saw Tower Falls. It was beautiful. There normally is a trail that goes to the base of the falls, but it was closed due to a rock slide. We then headed back to the hotel thinking that the adventures for this day was over. But the day had one more surprise for us. As we were getting close to Yellowstone Lake, we saw the one animal we really wanted to see, but figured we would not get to...a grizzly bear! It was amazing. It slowly walked very near our car and then crossed the road to a small pasture. And in the middle of the pasture was a rather large elk. I thought we were going to see some real nature at this point. The bear walked up the side of the pasture up a hill. I couldn't tell if he ever noticed the elk or not, but the elk definitely saw the grizzly. The elk stayed perfectly still, but never took his eyes off of the bear. He slowly turned his head until the bear was up the hill in the trees. He then slowly walked to the far side of the pasture and into the woods there. Just simply amazing end to the day!
We finally made back to the hotel. It was late and we had all wanted some ice cream. But unfortunately, the ice cream shop was already closed. So we went back to our rooms, took showers, and went straight to bed.
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