Yellowstone - Pt 5 (final chapter)

Before leaving Yellowstone, we want to include a few photos from the campground. We stayed at Yellowstone's Edge RV Park, approx. 35 miles north of the north entrance to the park. The traffic noise from Hwy 89 was very steady during the day, but was quiet at night and the Yellowstone River bounded the RV park on the other side. We had a view of mountains in all directions. Two nights before leaving, a thunderstorm passed to the west. We received little rain, but saw a spectacular view of the rain, clouds and sunset all at the same time.

On our last day trip to the park, we wanted to see the Yellowstone Falls. We got an early start and were pleased to arrive along the south rim of The Canyon before the first bus tours. The Upper Falls are visible very close to the parking lot.

We ventured further down Uncle Tom's trail, a set of downward expanded steps - no less than 328 steps to descend approximately 2/3 of the way into the canyon. From the bottom of the steps, a close view of the Lower Falls is the reward - before the 328 steps back up!

After catching our breath, we drove further along the south rim to Artist Point that offers a nice view of the canyon and falls.

We drove further south to see the Fishing Bridge campground. We had heard it was the only campground with full hookups. While adequate and certainly an advantage to be within the park itself, the campground offers little aesthetically or facility wise. We were pleased with our choice - also, with our short term planning, it is unlikely that we could have reserved a site. The park has no problem filling their spaces!

On our return to the RV park, we stopped at the Boiling River.

The Boiling River converges with Gardiner River and makes for a very pleasant swimming hole. Very hot springs blend with the icy river waters and you can choose your temperature based on proximity to the source of hot or cold. The boys preferred right down the middle!

While there, a herd of elk joined the swimmers and stood across the trail to the parking area. We managed to get past them without upsetting any of the herd, but two forest rangers were on their way to help assure the humans and elk blended together with no problems.

The last day was very pleasant and we stopped in Gardiner for buffalo burgers and huckleberry shakes - very nice!

The next morning, the boys tossed bits of leftover bread and hot dog buns into the river as we were packing up to leave.

Overall, we had a wonderful trip to Yellowstone and hope you've enjoyed our accounts.