On May 15th, our 10-year anniversary, we decided to head north and east, with our goal being the Lamar Valley, where wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, and Tower Falls. The northern part of the park seemed less touristy with more scenic valleys and overlooks. We stopped first at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. After a little hike down, we saw the most impressive waterfall we’d seen in the whole park. The colours of the rock striations were gorgeous, and with the cascading water lulling us into a peaceful stupor, it was a beautiful start to the day.
We drove to Mammoth Hot Springs and had a picnic lunch watching a prairie dog shove his face with dandelions – a good lunch for all. Mammoth is by far the nicest place, human habitation-wise, that we found in the park. Lots of old buildings and cabins from the early 1900’s and a great visitors center. There was also a lodge and little restaurant, all very quaint and picturesque; we decided that when we come back, we will definitely be staying in Mammoth if we stay in the park.
On our way to Tower Falls, we came across a huge gaggle of people lining the roads and knew a bear was around. We parked a little ways away and walked back up, and sure enough a momma black bear with two cubs were sleeping in the trees about 30 yards from the road. They were lolling together having an afternoon snooze, but the really cool thing about them was that one of the cubs was a cinnamon bear. Cinnamon bears are just a different colour phase from black bears, but it was really neat to see a black momma with one black cub and on cinnamon cub.
Art of Dust and Light 