Tuesday Afternoon, July 29

We arrived at Canyon Falls about 1 PM. We hadn’t eaten since having coffee and sharing a muffin while waiting for a display from Old Faithful ~ about 7:30 AM ~ so we looked for a place for lunch.

We shared a BLT and fries.

We spent the next two hours exploring the beautiful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

After walking partway down the falls trail, I told Cerwin that I better stop, because I do downhill okay, but uphill is more difficult.

On the way back to the top, we stopped every so often for a break ~ usually sitting on a bench.

While resting at the last bench before the parking lot, we noticed someone coming up the other trail ~ North Rim Trail. When he got to us, he said, “There is an elk out there in the meadow.”

Oh, wow! Cerwin had been hoping to see a large bull elk, and a 6 x 7 is almost as large as it gets.

It was below us, so we sat on a rock and watched it for a while.

It looked like it took a bit of effort to move his head.

Then I noticed another one coming out of the woods.

This one was a 6 x 6.

By this time the first one was feeding right along the trail.

I thought it would be fun to capture the expression of someone when they came through the opening in the path and discovered an elk right in front of them. 🙂 But that didn’t happen.

He continued to walk toward us as he fed in the lush meadow.

Before long we thought it may be safer to go back on the hiking trail ~ where by now a lot of people were standing.

The other one stayed on the hillside…

…but when the 6 x 7 got to within 20 yards of us we thought it would probably be wise to move toward the trail ~ which was right next to us.

He seemed oblivious to us, but it seemed that he was heading right toward us and we didn’t want to get a whack from those large antlers.

There are several viewing areas, but we found the Grand View to be the prettiest and most scenic.

Inspiration Point was also a pretty area, but the view wasn’t as grand as Grand View.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is definitely a worthwhile stop.