Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Yellowstone Float Trip

One of the highlights of our Yellowstone/Grand Tetons vacation was a rafting trip down the Yellowstone River. One thing about the West--I've never seen skies as consistently clear and as deep a blue as the ones out there. The only time I saw anything approaching smoggy eastern skies was our last day in the area when we drove through Jackson Hole.

Other than that one unfortunate partial day of smog, the air was cut as clean and clear as anywhere I've ever been.

We had to descend that steep hill via stairs down to our rafts.

Mountains, village, and river.

Panorama where we stopped to eat lunch.

The picnic area where we had our takeout for lunch and bathroom break. Look at those skies!

I rode the last little bit out in the riffles of the river. They had to call me to swim back to the raft or I'd have missed out last takeout point.
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2 comments:

  1. Kent Tankersley4:08 PM

    Cool. We did the same trip when we were out there (starting in Gardiner). And we jumped in the water at the end, too. God that water was cold!

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  2. James Robert Smith5:01 PM

    When we went, the water was not very cold, at all. Maybe you guys went earlier in the season when snowmelt was still coming out of the high country.

    I regret not going swimming in Firehole Canyon. When I looked at other people swimming in the big swimming hole I figured "Man! That water must be FREEZING!". Only later did I learn that the river in Firehole Canyon drains one of the major thermal areas and the water in the canyon is actually warm.

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