Yellowstone: Grand

Before we went to Yellowstone, Sam taught us about some of the great landscape painters of the Hudson River School, including his favorite, Albert Bierstadt, and of course Thomas Moran. Moran painted gorgeous pictures of Yellowstone when he explored it with the Hayden Expedition. You've probably seen his famous picture of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:

(picture from here)

I love it! And you can see practically this same view now, from the spot in Yellowstone called "Artist's Point." The picture is so stunning, and yet the actual view is even more stunning!

You can see the magnificent Lower Falls from Artist's Point. It's so enormous! And beautiful!

Goldie loves her Daddy.

After Artist's Point, we drove close to Lower Falls where you can hike down to stand right at the top of the waterfall and look down.

This big fellow was enjoying the wildflowers near the trailhead.

The river looks fairly innocent at this point. There are rapids, but I don't know if you'd expect such an enormous drop in just a few more feet! It scares me just to think about it! But I guess if you were exploring the river by raft, you would HEAR the roar of the waterfall in time to get out. Hopefully!

I love how the water looks green as it starts to plunge downward.

It's terrifying to look down, but also kind of…compelling? I love the mist. And the sound of the water.

And here we are looking back at Artist's Point! We especially loved the way the mist from the waterfall made the entire side of the canyon here green with moss.

From the trail you can also see Upper Falls.

Squinty.

Every time the sunlight hit a different spot, the whole view seemed to change. I love the colors of the rocks and the water!