The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Lower Fall from Red Rock Point, Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone River
(can you see the people at the brink of the waterfall?)

In my previous post, I shared about Gibbon Falls, which is a beautiful roadside waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. In this post, I will be featuring two of the more popular waterfalls in Yellowstone, the Upper Falls and Lower Falls which sit at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from the Brink of Lower Fall

The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River is probably the most popular waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. The two waterfalls in this area is a bonus, since the canyon is already a beautiful natural wonder to behold. The history of the canyon started  about 600,000 years ago, when a huge volcanic eruption occurred here in Yellowstone. The multi-colored rocks of the canyon walls you can see in the first picture above are evidence of the the hydrothermally altered rhyolite. 

Upper Fall from the trail to the Brink of the Lower Falls

Unlike my shots of Gibbon Falls, all my waterfall shots here at Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone were taken at fast shutter speed. For two main reasons:

1. The waterfall is so powerful, I wanted to show its amazing power by freezing the action (using fast shutter speed), and not hiding the motion by blurring the flow. Unlike Gibbon Falls where the flow is less and not very powerful, both Lower Falls and Upper Falls are so powerful the sound of the roaring water can be so overwhelming.

2. Unlike Gibbon Falls where we did not have to take a long walk to take pictures, here, we had to take a steep hike. Though the hike was not that long, but we did not know we had to descend and therefore ascend on the way back two times for the two points, going down more than 600 ft in about half a mile each time. Not knowing the trail descriptions ( my fault, I did not research), I had 2 lenses in my backpack, where the other one is for wildlife! A lens for wildlife means it is a zooming lens,which weighs more than my camera and landscape lens combined! With so much weight in my pack, and going down and up on steep slopes, frankly, I did not have the motivation to use slow shutter speed anymore! :(

Brink of the Lower Fall

In the first picture above, of the Lower Falls from the Red Rock Point, you can tell how small the people were compared to the falls. The Lower Falls is 308 ft, and is the tallest waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. Though we could not see the full waterfall from the Brink, but let me say this is the spot where I love experiencing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone the most. You will be standing right next to where the waterfall drops, and the sound is just so awe-inspiring. 

The Lower Fall, Looking Down from the Brink of Waterfall

From the brink of the lower fall, you are facing the grandness of the canyon wall. Listening to the powerful energy of the waterfall and looking at the multi-colored hues of the walls of the canyon, with the rainbow in front, it is hard not be awed by this sculpting of nature that resulted from fire and ice (volcanic eruption and glacier melting).

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from the Brink of Lower Fall

The Multi-colored Walls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River

Lower Falls from Look out Point

Trail Distances:

A. Brink of the Lower Fall - goes down about 600 ft in less than half a mile.

B. Red Rock Point- also goes down about 500-600 ft in less than half a mile. 

C. Lookout Point and Inspiration Point- just a very short level walk from the parking lot.

How to get here: through the one-way North Rim Drive.

* If you want to take the Uncle tom's Trail, it is at the South Rim Drive. We missed that one.

You may want to check other places in Yellowstone which I already had written previously:

          Exploring Yellowstone (part 2)
          Exploring Yellowstone (part 3)
          Geyser Hill
          Gibbon Falls
          Lower Geyser Basin
          Midway Geyser Basin
          Upper Geyser Basin

♥♥