Warm weather.

A cold, lingering rain today while I sit inside and write. So...photos of warmth and sunshine.

Jenny Lake, Grand Tetons National Park.

Lunchtime on a float trip along the Yellowstone River.

Warm Spring day at the Dry Tortugas National Park.

 

Wakualla Springs State Park, Florida.

Egmont Key!

On the Chassahowtizka River.

De Leon Springs.

Andy and I, at a Hot Spring on the Yellowstone River.

The Biggest Waterfall...

The biggest waterfall I've ever seen. In Yellowstone National Park on the Yellowstone River. I know that there are bigger waterfalls, but this is the most powerful I've ever witnessed. It was actually frightening to stand near it and feel the thunder of the falling water.

There was a viewing platform above the falls on the opposite side of the river from where I was standing.

In this close-up shot you can see people on the platform, which gives you an idea of scale.

Everything about this waterfall is fantastic. I look forward to returning to the Park.

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.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

One of the shorter hikes I took was along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Here, the Yellowstone River cuts through the soft volcanic ash laid down long ago by various eruptions. The river carved right through this malleable stuff and so we're left to see this impressive gorge through which the river continues to carve its route from Yellowstone Lake and to the lowlands.

The day I hiked this, we'd had a full day of journeying around the Park. I'd gotten up early in the day to hike up Mount Washburn. Then we drove over to Lamar Valley where I did some more short hikes, and then followed that up with a jaunt through Hayden Valley and back to Canyon Village where we parked along the rim to view the waterfalls.

Of course I had to get in a little more hiking. I generally try to keep my hiking totals to about ten miles per day, and I was already past that. But I figured the hike down the staircase trail to view the falls would only add another mile or so. What I didn't realize is that I was hiking in a full two miles above the stairs! In short, I ended up hiking four miles when I could have just driven down the road a short distance and caught the top of the staircase trail.

Walk and learn.

At any rate, I never begrudge a mile hiked. It's my favorite past time, so if I accidentally ended up hiking a little more than usual, that was okay with me. Carole and Andy were tired from the walking they'd done, so they had to wait for me a little longer than what we'd planned.

So it goes.

The colors in the canyon walls are amazing. As the sun changes angle, so do the colors.

I took this one from the Rim Trail.

You can see people standing beside the lip of the falls on the overlook on the other side. But you have to wonder when--and it will eventually happen--that ledge of stone is going to give way and the waterfall will advance upstream a little farther.

After hiking for two needless miles, I come to the top of the staircase leading down.

Yep. That there is a bunch of stairs. Just one leg of the series.

The sun was setting, lighting up the canyon with all sorts of new tints and shadows.

Looking back up the vast staircase on my way back to the rim of the canyon.

From the rim I could look back on Mount Washburn which I had climbed that morning.

I took this one from the other end of the rim trail.

More color.

What a place! The river in the bottom was like a ribbon of blue-green.

Rafting the Yellowstone River

Carole had booked a rafting trip down the Yellowstone River for us for one day. We chose the longer trip that included a riverside buffet lunch along the way. The weather was, as with our whole trip, perfect. The skies were mainly clear and the area where we were rafting was at a relatively low elevation, so the temperatures got up into the very low 80s. The water temperature was also a very bearable 65, so that wasn't a problem. We were used to water about that same temperature when we go snorkeling and canoeing in the springs of Florida.

We chose the Flying Pig outfit to host our trip. They were one of several in Gardiner Montana, and we liked their trip description the best. We got up early and headed into Gardiner and soon found the outfitters and got changed into T-shirts and swim trunks for the journey. We went through a simple instruction bit and then we all climbed down the steep set of stairs in the riverbank down to our rafts.

We were on our way!


Looking down on the Yellowstone River from Gardiner. We were pretty high above the banks and had to climb way down there to get to the rafts.

Carole and Andy and our river guide, Anna, who is from Australia.

An osprey that we encountered just as the float trip began.

I snapped this one to show one of the other rafts and the typical scenery all along the 18-mile trip.

Anna let Andy take the oars for a bit. He looks like a natural!

Looking ahead toward the mountains. The river was getting slowly pinched in by the canyon.

This is LaDuke Springs, a hot spring that flows down into the Yellowstone River. The water here was really hot! Scalding!

Andy and me standing in front of the terraces at LaDuke Hot Spring for a portrait.

Dome Mountain rises ahead of us on the river.

The skies in Montana are a brilliant, clear blue.

I took this composite shot at the point where we stopped to eat lunch.

We came across this huge raft of ducks just as we were preparing to disembark for lunch.

The place where we climbed up the bank to eat. We had buffet style lunch--sandwiches, drinks, salad, and beans, cookies, etc. It was very filling!

Our guide, Anna, Carole and Andy.

Anna took this of the crew on her raft (with my camera).

The canyon gets really narrow at this point.

I looked back to take a photo of the other raft coming down a series of rapids we'd just gone through.

This was the most fun I had. Toward the end of the trip I hopped out and rode some mild rapids just floating along in my life vest. I was smiling, but riding the river that way was very tiring!

Soon after this we came to the take out point and went ashore. The bus from the Flying Pig was there to pick us up and take us back into Gardner. We had a great time! Carole always books this kind of side-trip for us on our vacations, and we always have a blast!