This is my last post about Yellowstone. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the wildness of this fascinating national park.

Several months ago, when Mart was planning the itinerary for our trip to Yellowstone, he said we’d be going to the Grand Canyon. I was confused. How could that be? True, we’d been talking about several different national parks, but unless something crazy had happened, I knew the Grand Canyon is in Arizona.

Turns out, Yellowstone has one too. And it is quite a sight (see photo above).

An early white explorer of Yellowstone said this of the Canyon, “As I took in the scene, I realized my own littleness, my helplessness, my dread exposure to destruction, my inability to cope with or even comprehend the mighty architecture of nature.” —Nathaniel P. Langford, 1870

The colorful Canyon walls look like an Artist took up pastel chalks and carefully shaded the rocks, with a light hand in some areas and a heavier hand in others.

The yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, and browns of the Canyon walls come not from chalk but from rhyolitic lava and tuff, altered by hydrothermal action. The heat, fractures, and hydrothermal fluids have softened and eroded the rhyolite. And volcanic rocks have hardened and compacted into tuff. (Sources: glossary of US Geological Survey and park information sign at the site.)

Through time, the powerful Yellowstone River has cut 1000 feet down through the rock to form the Canyon.

Nineteenth-century painter Thomas Moran said that the Canyon was “beyond the reach of human art.” And I agree.

As we took photos of the Canyon walls to our right, we moved to the left and saw this: Falls in the distance and a clear view of the river in greens and blues, flowing through dark brown walls above. This is the Lower Falls at Artist Point.

After marveling at the sights before us, we got back in the car and drove a short distance to Upper Falls. We were able to get closer to these falls, and the view of the waterfall through the evergreens with the mountain beyond and the blue sky above held its own beauty.

It was hard to leave, but we had other beauty to see a bit further down the road.

One of the things I was most excited about seeing in Yellowstone was wildlife, particularly bison. Each day, we passed meadow after meadow where herds could congregate, but we never saw anything. I began to wonder where they were all hanging out.

Then, early one morning, we were driving down the road leading from our rental to go toward West Yellowstone and the coffee shop. I was trying to Be Awake, looking forward to a tall cup of English Breakfast tea and a homemade muffin.

“There’s a bison,” our daughter said, from the back seat.

“Wait—what?!” I exclaimed. “Here?” As opposed to inside the Park, where they are supposed to be…?

“Yes, it’s right back there.” She was pointing out the window at the woods, but we had already passed it. Mart turned the car around, drove back, and turned around when we spotted the bison.

It was lumbering along, by itself, through the woods. We slowed down and took photo after photo from a safe distance away.

We never did see a herd, but we had our own personal bison sighting. From the safety of our car. Far away. And that was just fine by me.

For more info and photos of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its falls, check out the National Park Services’ website here.

At Glimsen, I share glimpses of the beauty around us in nature, the arts, and the unexpected. Click the green button below to get my posts delivered to your inbox once a week, and you'll also get a little printable gift of beauty just for signing up.