Without a whole lot of time to explore the park, I decided I’d hit the Canyon area Friday, then the geysers on Saturday. As such, Friday:

There’s this stairway down to Lower (Yellowstone?) Falls that’s called Uncle Tom’s Trail. There are a lot of stairs there and a lot of overweight people who should maybe more-fully consider the trip back up the stairs before starting the trip down. Oh well. Also: rainbows.

Lower Falls.

Same waterfall, but this time with a “Grand Canyon” view. The canyon has interesting colors in it (not pictured).

See? Interesting colors.

Hayden Valley — sort of how you’d romantically envision all of Wyoming looking. I think it mostly doesn’t look like this, but maybe the government can fix that for us. Write your congressman (or congresswoman!).

• Yellowstone is crowded.
• I guess the good and bad thing about the place is that the most important sites are very accessible.
• Actually, that seems mostly bad, since it’s hard to lose the sense that you’re not alone. Very hard.
• Every photo ends up feeling trite since, well, anywhere you stand to take one there are five other people trying to do the same thing.
• And then the trails don’t seem to take you anywhere you really need to go.
• Plus, you have to buy intra-park regional trail guides ($0.50 each, but still — these are usually included on park maps).
• But these trail guides really only talk about the often-paved little nature trails that run alongside the various parking lots.
• In fact, some of the “trails” they include aren’t trails, they’re just parking lots.
• And then if you ever do get onto a trail, the stuff in the guide doesn’t match up with the names of things on the signs at the trailhead.
• Meh.

bkd