LeHardys Rapids

Sat, 6/28/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: A beautiful morning. We decided to drive up to Canyon City and stop at all the points along the way. Our first stop was at sulphur caldron and mud volcano. Interesting, but not very pretty. The drive took us along the Yellowstone River all the way to Canyon City. Spectacular views. After that we stopped at LeHardys Rapids—a beautiful spot on the river where cutthroat trout fight their way up the rapids to Fishing Bridge where they spawn. That is happening now. We saw a couple of the trout in the shallows—resting I guess before they tackled the rapids. We are here at a great time since they had a late snow melt and there is lots of water in the rivers and lakes. In fact, there is a lot of snow still around—even in our campground. Had lunch at Canyon City and then backtracked to the upper and lower falls. These are on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Spectacular canyon and falls. We hiked down one of the rim trails and saw an elk on the trail. We heard a grizzly and her two cubs were spotted at Hayden Valley. We only saw Bison when we went by there. Back to the campground. This campground has a grocery store, gas station, laundry, as well as a car and RV repair facility. We stopped at the grocery store to check it out. Pretty limited. We plan to head back to Cody anyway, so we’ll do our grocery shopping then.