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July 19, 1997: Hiking Around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park |
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July 17, 1997: Touring the Geothermal Features in Yellowstone National Park |
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Return to the Index for Our Yellowstone Trip |
Today, we are going to take a different drive through Yellowstone, concentrating on the north and east park roads. This route will take us by Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the few geothermal features we will see today. But, more important, it will give us a chance to explore what is known as The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the canyon through which the Yellowstone River flows. It will give us a different perspective on this iconic National Park.
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Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872, is located primarily in Wyoming and is widely regarded as the world's first true national park, and it is widely known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser. Native Americans lived here for ten thousand years, but organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s; in addition to its other natural wonders, there are more than 1,000 archaeological sites in the park.
Hundreds of species of mammals (including large herds of bison and elk along with grizzly bears and wolves), birds, fish and reptiles call the vast forests and grasslands that are sprinkled with many unique plant species home. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt (and on our visit this summer, we would still see large areas that had not yet begun to recover from those fires).
Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,500 square miles and sits atop the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano, and it has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism, and we will see more of these today.
Gibbon Falls
Just east of Madison Junction, we made a stop at Gibbon Falls, where there is a short walk from the parking area to an overlook for the falls. Gibbon Falls has a drop of approximately 84 feet. The falls are located roadside, 4.7 miles upstream from the confluence of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers at Madison Junction on the Grand Loop Road.
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The falls were first described by William Henry Jackson during the second Hayden geological survey of 1872. There is no historical record as to how they got their name, but by the mid-1880s, they were routinely referred to as Gibbon Falls in both government and commercial accounts of the park. In 1883, in his "The Yellowstone National Park- A Manual for Tourists", Henry J. Winser described the falls thusly:
| "Falls of the Gibbon - These are situated four miles from the entrance to the canón, and are reached by a trail on the right of the road. The descent is quite steep, but the stalwart tourist wlll not regret the strain upon his muscles after a sight of the magnificent falls. The water tumbles over them in a foamy sheet, full eighty feet in depth, making a charming picture, full of life and vigor, which is in striking contrast to its setting or grim rocks and dusky pines. After leaving the falls and the foaming river, the road soon crosses Canón Creek, passing for the next eight miles over a succession of pine and fir clad terraces, the charms of which are apt to cloy, before the next attractive point is reached." |
In 1895, Hiram M. Chittenden described Gibbon Falls in his "Yellowstone National Park- Historical and Descriptive" this way:
| "Gibbon Falls (8.5 miles) [the distance from Norris] is a waterfall of very irregular outline, but withal one of much beauty. The road hangs on the side of the cliff far above it, and affords a lovely view of the forest-covered valley below.." |
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When the Washburn and Hayden parties traveled through the Firehole River and Gibbon River basins in the 1870s, the Gibbon River above Gibbon Falls was barren of fish. As it turned out, the falls were a natural barrier to upstream migration, even though we may remember seeing other migrating fish jumping up rapids for long distances. Unlike the Yellowstone drainage, the upper Gibbon was isolated from any connection to drainages on the Pacific slope. The absence of fish was overcome in 1890 when the first Rainbow trout were introduced into the river above the falls.
In 1920, Arctic Grayling, native in the Gibbon and Madison Rivers below the falls were stocked in Grebe Lake at the headwaters of the Gibbon. Today, the falls still block upstream migrations of spawning trout from the Madison River, but the upper Gibbon has become a consistent trout fishery because of these introductions.
The Norris Geyser Basin
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The Ragged Hills that lie between Back Basin and One Hundred Springs Plain are thermally altered glacial kames. As glaciers receded the underlying thermal features began to express themselves once again, melting remnants of the ice and causing masses of debris to be dumped. These debris piles were then altered by steam and hot water flowing through them. Madison lies within the eroded stream channels cut through lava flows formed after the caldera eruption. The Gibbon Falls lies on the caldera boundary as does Virginia Cascades.
The tallest active geyser in the world is Steamboat Geyser, located here. Why no picture of this geyser in eruption? Well, unlike the slightly smaller but much more famous Old Faithful Geyser, Steamboat has an erratic and lengthy timetable between major eruptions. There are often one-year intervals between major eruptions, with the longest recorded span being 50 years. A major eruption sends water 300 feet into the air; minor eruptions, which may occur every few hours, send water only 30-40 feet up. So it's easy to see how we missed a major eruption!
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In 2003 a park ranger observed this same geyser bubbling heavily- the first such activity seen since 1991. Activity increased dramatically in mid-2003. Because of high ground temperatures and new features beside the trail much of Back Basin was closed until October. In 2004 the boardwalk was routed around the dangerous area and now leads behind Porkchop Geyser.
North of Norris, Roaring Mountain is a large, acidic hydrothermal area with many fumaroles. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number, size, and power of the fumaroles were much greater than today. The fumaroles are most easily seen in the cooler, low-light conditions of morning and evening. Artists' Paintpots is a small hydrothermal area south of Norris Junction that includes colorful hot springs and two large mudpots.
We would have followed all of the boardwalks in the networks, but we really wanted to see the east side of the park, so we returned to the car and headed north from Norris Junction.
Mammoth Hot Springs
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Several key ingredients combine to create the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces: heat, water, limestone, and a rock fracture system through which hot water can reach the earth’s surface- “plumbing.” Today’s geothermal activity is a link to past volcanism. A partially molten magma chamber, remnant of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion 600,000 years ago in central Yellowstone, supplies one of the key ingredients- heat.
The hot water that feeds Mammoth comes from Norris Geyser Basin after traveling underground via a fault line that runs through limestone and roughly parallel to the Norris-to-Mammoth road. The limestone from rock formations along the fault is the source of the calcium carbonate that is a major element of the terraces. Shallow circulation along this corridor allows Norris' superheated water to slightly cool before surfacing at Mammoth, generally at about 170°F. Algae living in the warm pools have tinted the travertine shades of brown, orange, red, and green.
Hot water is the creative force of the terraces; without it, terrace growth ceases and color vanishes. The source of the water flowing out of Yellowstone’s thermal features is rain and snow. Falling high on the slopes in and around Yellowstone, water seeps deep into the earth. This cold ground water is warmed by heat radiating from the magma chamber before rising back to the surface.
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To form these massive terraces, hot water must be able to reach the earth’s surface in relatively large volumes to erupt as a geyser or flow as a hot spring. In Yellowstone, and especially here at Mammoth Hot Springs, many conduits remain from the collapse of the giant caldera; frequent earthquakes keep this underground “plumbing” system open. Even though Mammoth lies twenty miles and more north of the caldera ring fracture system at Norris Junction, a fault trending north from Norris Geyser Basin, 21 miles away, connects Mammoth to the hot water of that system. A system of smaller fissures carries water upward to create approximately 50 hot springs in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.
Another necessary ingredient for terrace growth is a certain mineral- in this case, calcium carbonate. Thick layers of sedimentary limestone, deposited millions of years ago by vast seas, lie beneath the Mammoth area, and is the raw material from which the terraces that we saw here were eventually built. How this happens is an interesting story in itself.
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As ground water seeps slowly downward and laterally, it comes in contact with hot gases charged with carbon dioxide rising from the magma chamber. Some carbon dioxide is readily dissolved in the hot water to form a weak carbonic acid solution. This hot, acidic solution rapidly dissolves great quantities of limestone, and seeps up through rock layers until it gushes forth as one of the Mammoth Hot Springs. Once exposed to the open air, some of the carbon dioxide escapes from solution. As this happens, limestone can no longer remain in solution; a solid mineral reforms and is deposited as travertine.
Travertine is deposited as a white rock, yet the terraces are tapestries of color wherever water flows. The oranges, pinks, yellows, greens and browns are from masses of tiny living bacteria and algae. The colors of these organisms indicate the temperature of the water, among other things. For example, white and yellow thermal bacteria grow in the hottest sections of runoff channels near the vents of springs. Farther away, as water cools, orange, brown and green bacteria and algae thrive. These thermal organisms have probably changed little from those growing in hot springs at the dawn of life on earth.
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The Mammoth Hot Springs constantly change their surroundings and, in turn, are changed by them. Travertine formations are shaped by the quantity of flowing water, the slope of the ground, and the presence of objects such as trees or rocks in the water’s path. As formations grow, water is forced to flow in different directions. The constant interplay of shifting water flow and mineral deposition creates a living sculpture.
The Mammoth Terraces extend all the way from the boardwalk-networked hillside, across the Parade Ground, and down to Boiling River. The Mammoth Hotel, as well as all of Fort Yellowstone, is built upon an old terrace formation known as Hotel Terrace. There was some concern when construction began in 1891 on the fort site that the hollow ground would not support the weight of the buildings, and indeed several large sink holes exist near the parade ground. This area has been thermally active for several thousand years.
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Rapid mineral accumulations can do more than transform the appearance of the hillside. When travertine deposits choke a spring’s underground plumbing, water circulation may be constricted or completely blocked, and hot spring behavior changes. Whether the change is subtle or dramatic depends on the configuration of the spring’s underground plumbing, and its place in the area’s more extensive underground channels.
From the end of the upper terraces, we made our way back to the top of the boardwalk and from there back to the parking area. We want to pick up the Park Road again to head east, and to do that, we have to go through the small village of Mammoth Hot Springs.
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We stopped at Ft. Yellowstone briefly, and had a snack in town before heading east towards Tower-Roosevelt.
Tower Fall
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The drive east from Mammoth Hot Springs was certainly pretty, what with the Yellowstone River down below us most of the way, but other than a few turnouts there were no real attractions for us to stop and hike to.
We did pass Undine Falls about four miles east of Mammoth Hot Springs Junction, but it was hard to see them as there was not much water flowing over them. The falls themselves were only about 40 feet high. We arrived at the parking area for Tower Falls to be greeted by the largest number of tourists we’d seen so far.
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Click on the thumbnail image below for a neat picture of Fred here at the parking area. He is standing as close to the drop-off as allowed, and the view looks across the deep canyon of the Yellowstone River towards the opposite rim. It’s an awfully sheer drop on both sides of the canyon:
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Tower Fall is on Tower Creek here in the northeastern region of Yellowstone National Park; it is approximately 1,000 yards upstream from the creek's confluence with the Yellowstone River. The falls plunge 132 feet, and their name comes from the rock pinnacles at the top of the falls. Tower Creek and Tower Fall is located approximately three miles south of Roosevelt Junction on the Tower-Canyon road.
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On September 15–16, 1869, members of the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition spent a whole day in the Tower Fall area, and in August 1870, the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition camped near and explored the Tower Fall area for several days en route to Yellowstone Lake. In a 1871 report to Secretary of War Gustavus C. Doane, a member of the expedition described Tower Falls thusly:
| "The great curiosity of the locality, however, is the Tower Fall of Hot Spring Creek, where that stream is precipitated, in one unbroken body, 115 feet into a deep gorge. At the crest of the fall the stream has cut its way through the rock to leave tall spires from 50 to 100 feet in height, and worn in every conceivable shape. These are very friable, crumbling under slight pressure; several of them stand like sentinels on the very brink of the fall. A view from the summit of one of these spires is exceedingly beautiful; the clear icy stream plunges from a brink 100 feet beneath to the bottom of the chasm, over 200 feet below, and thence rushes through the narrow gorge, tumbling over boulders and tree trunks fallen in the channel. The sides of the chasm have variously-tinted mosses, nourished by clouds of spray which rise from the cataract. The fall is accessible either at the brink or foot, and fine views can be obtained from either side of the cañon. In the basin we found a large petrified log imbedded in the débris. Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than this lovely cascade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadowing rocks and woods, its very voice hushed to a low murmur, unheard at the distance of a few hundred yards. Thousands might pass by within a half mile and not dream of its existence; but once seen, it passes to the list of most pleasant memories." |
The fall was named by Samuel Hauser, a member of the Washburn party. Hauser made this notation in his diary on August 27, 1870: "Campt [sic] near the most beautiful falls I ever saw. I named them Tower Falls from the towers & pinnicle [sic] that overhang them height 115 feet. Aug 28- Didnt [sic] move camp Cenery [sic] too beautiful I measured these falls-found them 115-the pinacal [sic] cover top Then 200ft Eight different spires crown from the falls-From below the view is splendid.".
A well-known painting of Tower Falls by Thomas Moran in 1871 helped persuade Congress to set aside Yellowstone as the world's first national park in 1872. The fall was renamed Tower Fall (singular) by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1928.
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When I took the right-hand picture of Fred at right, we had come down almost to the level of the Yellowstone River now, about four hundred feet. It’s been an easy hike down, but it promises to be a much more strenuous one going back up. There were lots of people on the trail, and it was an effort to get shots without at least some of them showing up. I find it immensely interesting that you could put a canoe into the water here in northern Wyoming and float north into Montana, but eventually end up floating past New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.
The trail down to Tower Fall was just over a half-mile one way, although you can continue the hike all the way down to the Yellowstone River. (Many people do, thinking that they will get additional views of the falls, but beyond the marked overlook, there aren't any. We were able to walk all the way to the base of the falls, but that section of the trail was washed away in a 2004 mud and rock slide, and it is still closed.
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There is quite a lot of water flowing over these falls here; it's all runoff and springs; there are no geothermal features anywhere nearby. We enjoyed being here at the base of the Fall, and climbing on all the boulders (large and small) that have been deposited here. Unfortunately, if you will click on the thumbnail images below to look at a couple of the pictures we took here, you will also see what I meant about all the tourists:
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Leaving Tower Falls, we continued around the park road to the south, heading towards Canyon Village junction. Along the way, we passed a great deal of lovely scenery, including 10,000-foot Mt. Washburn. There is a trip to the top of the mountain, but it would have taken the rest of the day, so we saved it for a later time.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
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Although trappers and prospectors who visited the Yellowstone region had knowledge of the canyon earlier, the first significant descriptions were publicized after the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869 and the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition of 1870.
When Charles W. Cook first viewed the canyon after traveling west from the Lamar Valley on September 20, 1869 he subsequently wrote these words in his journal:
| "I was riding ahead, the two pack animals following, and then Mr. Folsom and Mr. Peterson on their saddle horses. I remembered seeing what appeared to be an opening in the forest ahead, which I presumed to be a park, or open country. While my attention was attracted by the pack animals, which had stopped to eat grass, my saddle horse suddenly stopped. I turned and looked forward from the brink of the great canyon, at a point just across from what is now called Inspiration Point. I sat there in amazement, while my companions came up, and after that, it seemed to me that it was five minutes before anyone spoke." |
We made a number of stops here at the top of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and so it is probably appropriate that I include a map of just this area.
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However, Lt. Gustavus C. Doane, a member of the Washburn expedition, which visited the area on August 30–31, 1870, described the canyon with a bit more scientific detail:
| "As we approached the Grand Cañon a dull roaring sound warned us that the falls were near at hand. ...I had descended the cañon at a point where the creek joined the river, precipitated into a gorge just above its juncture in a lovely cascade of three falls, in the aggregate 100 feet in height. This was named Crystal Cascade, and the stream Cascade Creek. In the bed of the gorge were to be found an infinite variety of volcanic specimens, quartz, feldspar, mica, granites, lavas, basalts, composite crystals; in fact, everything, from asbestos to obsidian, was represented by fragments in the bed of this stream. There were also beautiful clay stone specimens, of which we afterward learned the origin. At the foot of the gorge and on the margin of the Yellowstone stood a high promontory of concretionary lava, literally filled with volcanic butternuts. Many of these were loose, and could be taken out of the rock with the hand; broken open they were invariably hollow, and lined with minute quartz crystals of various tints. This formation is rare, but occurs frequently in the great basin. From the outer point of this promontory can be seen the foot of the upper fall of the Yellowstone, and I climbed to the summit to obtain a view." |
Having parked at the Inspiration Point parking area, we took the short trail out to the edge of the canyon, and discovered, of course, that the point was well-named.
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| "...both (cataracts), however, are eclipsed, as it were, by the singular wonders of the mighty cañon below. This deepens rapidly; the stream flowing over rapids continually. ...Several of the party descended into the chasm a short distance below the fall, but could not reach its foot. ... The walls of the cañon are of gypsum, in some places having an incrustation of lime white as snow, from which the reflected rays of the sun produce a dazzling effect... In others the rock is crystalline and almost wholly sulphur, of a dark yellow color, with streaks of red, green and black, caused by the percolations of hot mineral waters, of which thousands of springs are seen, in many instances, flowing from spouts high up on the walls on either side. ...promontories stand out in all manner of fantastic forms, affording vistas of wonder utterly beyond the power of description. There are perhaps other canons longer and deeper than this one, but surely none combining grandeur and immensity with peculiarity of formation and profusion of volcanic or chemical phenomena." |
We, too, were amazed at the vista before us. I know that the pictures may seem unreal to you, particularly if you have never been here or to similar places elsewhere. But, trust me, the views were every bit real, if hard to take in.
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The canyon below the Lower Yellowstone Falls was at one time the site of a geyser basin that was the result of rhyolite lava flows, extensive faulting, and heat beneath the surface (related to the hot spot). No one is sure exactly when the geyser basin was formed in the area, although it was probably present at the time of the last glaciation. The chemical and heat action of the geyser basin caused the rhyolite rock to become hydrothermally altered, making it very soft and brittle and more easily erodible (sometimes likened to baking a potato). Evidence of this thermal activity still exists in the canyon in the form of geysers and hot springs that are still active and visible.
The Clear Lake area, which is fed by hot springs, south of the canyon is probably also a remnant of this activity. According to Ken Pierce, U.S. Geological Survey geologist, at the end of the last glacial period, about 14,000 to 18,000 years ago, ice dams formed at the mouth of Yellowstone Lake. When the ice dams melted, a great volume of water was released downstream causing massive flash floods and immediate and catastrophic erosion of the present-day canyon. These flash floods probably happened more than once. The canyon is a classic V-shaped valley, indicative of river-type erosion rather than glaciation. Today the canyon is still being eroded by the Yellowstone River.
From Inspiration Point, we drove a few hundred yards south along the rim road to Grandview Point, which offered more, although different, views of the canyon immediately below the Lower Falls.
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One other view that we got from here was a little more disconcerting. This view looked directly down a rock slide that goes most of the way to the river. I can only imagine sliding down the gravel and not being able to stop.
The colors in the canyon are also a result of hydrothermal alteration. The rhyolite in the canyon contains a variety of different iron compounds. When the old geyser basin was active, the "cooking" of the rock caused chemical alterations in these iron compounds. Exposure to the elements caused the rocks to change colors. The rocks are oxidizing; in effect, the canyon is rusting. The colors indicate the presence or absence of water in the individual iron compounds. Most of the yellows in the canyon are the result of iron present in the rock rather than, as many people think, sulfur.
Well, we've seen a lot of the canyon so far, but now we want to move on to the Falls themselves. This we will do, at least for the Lower Falls, from the Lookout Point trailhead. Trails here will take us to both the top of the Lower Falls and to the bottom (although the observation area at the bottom is not so close to the falls as the one at the top.)
Yellowstone Falls
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The trail down to the top of the falls was not so long as to the viewpoint below. It only dropped a couple of hundred feet from the canyon rim. The trail down to the top of the Lower Falls wasn't long, but it was fairly steep, and there were a number of switchbacks on the way down. We took a couple of pictures along the way, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below you can have a look at them:
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There were a number of switchbacks, including this final one that takes you down almost to the level of the river. Usually, I am the last one to obey signage (so long as I’m not actually damaging anything), but here, I thought discretion would be the much, much better part of valor. If you slipped into the water here, there would be nothing to stop you from going over the falls, and I think a three-hundred-foot drop would be pretty final. I did find myself wondering if any tourists not nearly so cautious as I had made that mistake.
It is likely that Native American tribes knew of the falls for centuries. Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition made a note in his journal about hearing of the falls but did not believe the story. The first European to see the falls was likely French fur trapper Baptise Ducharme who claimed to see the falls in 1824, 1826 and 1839. Jim Bridger and fellow explorer James Gremmell claimed they visited the falls in 1846. In 1851, Bridger provided missionary Father Pierre-Jean De Smet a map showing the location of the falls.
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Here are the Lower Falls as seen from above:
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The Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition, a private group of three explorers, named the falls in 1869. The earliest images of the falls were drawn by Private Charles Moore, a member of the U.S. Army escort of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition which explored the Yellowstone River in August–September 1870. During the Hayden Expedition of 1871, the falls were documented in photographs by William Henry Jackson and later in paintings by Thomas Moran. In January 1887, Frank Jay Haynes took the first winter photographs of the lower falls.
We took a couple more pictures of interest from here. One was my effort to show the erosion and landslide patterns over on the South Rim; I thought they were very interesting, and I also wanted to show the walkway along Uncle Tom’s Trail on the South Rim. It might have been interesting to do some of those hikes on the South Rim, but all we had time for was Artist's Point.
I had hoped that my picture looking down the falls would turn out better, but there was too much spray from the falls themselves to allow a good contrast with the river some 300 feet below.
Now, even though we actually did it earlier, let's go have a look at the Lower Falls from below. When we got back to the top of this trail, I took a picture looking down to the observation point at the bottom of the falls, so you can see where we are headed. I think the picture turned out well, and you can see it here.
We did take the hike down to the observation platform below the falls, and there we got two excellent pictures looking up at the Lower Falls. You can see them below:
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Fred got me to sit on the log rail surrounding the observation area so he could take a panoramic shot:
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I have to admit that the falls were really impressive from this vantage point. They were so impressive and I wanted to get another look at the top of the falls, so we returned there briefly before we left. Cascading from the 590,000 year old Canyon Rhyolite lava flow, Lower Yellowstone Falls is the largest volume waterfall in the Rocky Mountains of the United States.
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Here is another view of the water as it cascades over the Lower Falls:
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Before we left the top of the Lower Falls for the second time, I got a nice picture of the Yellowstone River below the falls- a wonderful view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and the river that is carving it. Looking in the other direction we got an equally good view of the river above the falls. The river looks unassuming, with not much hint that just a few hundred feet further on, the ground would literally drop away. The Yellowstone River is a handsome one here- pristine and fast.
Here is another horizontal panoramic shot that Fred took from here at the overlook:
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He also took a couple of vertical panoramic views looking down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone; you can use the scrollable windows below to see these two pictures:
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We stayed at this overlook for a while, and then went back up the trail to the parking area. Just before reaching it, we followed a sign that pointed the way to Cascade Creek, and were rewarded with this nice view of one of the many tributaries of the Yellowstone River.
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We continued to the end of North Rim Drive and rejoined the park road for a short distance to the parking area for the Upper Falls Trail. The trail is only a quarter-mile long (with numerous stairs) and leads down through the woods to the level of the river.
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The Yellowstone River actually makes two abrupt turns at this point. It flows basically north for a ways over some low cascades and then it hits a solid wall of rhyolite. This forces the river to turn almost 90° to the east at that point, and it flows right by the observation platform and then over the Upper Falls.
At the bottom of the falls, the course of the river alters again, and it continues to flow north towards the Lower Falls.
As a point of interest, it turns again to the east before it actually goes over the Lower Falls, and then eventually turns north again.
We took two more good pictures just above the observation platform, and these pictures are below:
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I tried one more picture while I was on the platform at the Upper Falls, and that was to duplicate the kind of picture I took at the top of the Lower Falls. I leaned out as far as I could to try to get a picture of the falls themselves. With the lighting the way it was, it is almost impossible for you to tell that the white water at the left of the picture (slightly darker than the white of the falls) is actually some 300 feet below the cascade that you see here.
We wanted to get around to Artist's Point for the reportedly spectacular views there, but in talking with another group here at the Upper Falls it became apparent that by the time we could get there, the light would have faded significantly, making the views far less impressive. So we decided to bypass that half-hour drive and instead head off to our motel. We headed south on the park road, out of the park, and down towards Jackson, Wyoming. We picked up the reservation we’d made the day before at Flat Creek Junction. We checked in, and then went off to explore Jackson in the early evening. We just wandered around and had a nice dinner, and prepared for our next day which would be spent in the Grand Tetons.
You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page for our Yellowstone trip, or you can use the link to return to the index for this trip. From there, you can go elsewhere in the photo album.
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July 19, 1997: Hiking Around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park |
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July 17, 1997: Touring the Geothermal Features in Yellowstone National Park |
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Return to the Index for Our Yellowstone Trip |
