Yellowstone Part 4: Home Sweet Home

Did you think I meant that we were home? Sucka! We're only halfway through our trip! (Here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

This is the day we went to visit my "home away from home" for 2 summers. Canyon Village! Now before I wax poetic about this place let me tell you that it was far from the most comfortable or convenient place to live. And the food sucked!

But I made some cool friends and I lived a short hike (or drive) from this...

(this year's Christmas picture, Mom and Dad?)

This is the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
At 308 feet tall it's higher than Niagra Falls

This is the view from Artist's Point

And you can tell how Yellowstone got it's name - from the rocks along the edges of the Canyon where the Yellowstone River flows.


This is the Upper Falls (named because they are up-river) and it's only about 115 feet tall and not as spectacular since there's no viewpoint where you get the panoramic view like you do for the Lower Falls.

Joel and Allison

Looking down from the brink of Upper Falls

You can get to the brink of each falls, but you can't really get to the bottom. You can take Uncle Tom's Trail, which is some 800+ stairs that takes you about halfway down the side of the Lower Falls. I did it... once!


There are always rainbows in the mist off the falls. It's prettier in person since they are forever shifting.

These are my friends Deana and Chock.

They're the postmasters at Canyon Village. They have been coming there every summer for something like 14 years. In the winter they live in Texas. They're super friendly and know all the employees and even hand out freezer pops on days when you don't get any mail!
They know when you don't get mail because most of the employees get their mail... general delivery! This is the only place in my life I've gotten mail general delivery and it's kind of fun!

This is my friend Dan (no, not the one I never connected with, obviously)

He and I did a lot of fun stuff together like hiking to the Natural Bridge and taking the Lake tour on the Scenicruiser. We both were "newbies" to the park in 2000. We then took a summer off and both went back in 2002. He has since come back every summer (working in housekeeping) and in the winter he works in Death Valley. He worked one or two winters in the beginning in the Everglades, but prefers the dry heat of Death Valley. I guess winter's better than summer to work there!



And this is a rabbit we caught (on camera) outside the dorms. We frequently had rabbits, ground squirrels (pika), crows, and a few moose, bison, and even bears around our dorms. When in Yellowstone you never open a door and go out without looking first!

The only downside to this day was that my car didn't get to stop at the Norris Geyser Basin. I had a certain time to meet my friends for lunch and since we got a late start we didn't have time to stop. There are some really neat geysers there and you can see the ground boiling.

Next time...