It actually got cold last night here in the Grand Tetons. When I hopped in the Golf at 5:20AM, it said the temp was 34 F and my fingers were freezing when I was taking sunrise photos of the Tetons.
I'm trying to catch up on the days, but it's difficult when you are running on laptop battery, so let's see how many days I can get through today. I have a DC to AC power inverter which plugs into a cigarette lighter, which I used to charge the laptop while driving around.
Tonight is the last night in the Tetons and I haven't taken any sunset shots. So, I'm hanging out at camp writing this blog post while waiting for sunset, which is a little after 9PM tonight. Being this close to the summer solstice is taking a toll on my sleep schedule. 9:00PM sunset to 5:45AM sunrise with 20-30 minutes of driving between destination and camp means you would get very little sleep. So I've been focusing on sunrise since that is the bang for the buck around here.
Day 4 - 5/29/2025
We got another early start out of the Ho-Hum Hotel and headed to the Yellowstone River to check out the Upper and Lower Falls. One thing of note of the trip there, a fairly large black bear ran across the road behind me, the pickup truck back there had to hit the brakes pretty hard to not hit it.
We stopped at the trail to hike down to the Brink of the Lower Falls overlook which is on the North Rim of the Canyon. That was a steep hike, so we decided we weren't up for it. But you do get a long range photo opportunity of the Upper Falls part way down the trail. So I ran (well, walked slowly to not pass out due to the altitude) back to the car and grabbed my RF 100-400mm F/5.6-8 and got the following shot.
Upper Falls - Yellowstone River
We then moved down the road a 1/2 mile or so to the Lower Falls Lookout Point. The view was great and then I saw there was a trail that goes down into the canyon some to get a lower point of view of the Falls. This, I had to do, even if I was going to be huffing on the way back up. Nadine checked with the Park Ranger who was hanging out and asked how far down it was. She mentioned it was something like 600 stairs and was a good short hike. I figured I could make it, so Nadine stayed up top and I headed down.
On the way down, I ran into a family trying to get a family portrait shot while off the trail on the edge of a cliff with the falls in the background. Mom was trying to get her camera setup on a little tri-pod with a plan to set the camera on a timer, run over to the edge of the cliff and hopefully get in the shot in time without falling down into the canyon. I've been an Intel employee for 25 years where they hammer safety into your brain, and the first thing I thought was, "this is a recipe for disaster" and offered to take the shot for them. Mom at first was, "no, I got it" and then her husband saw my camera hanging from my shoulder said, "He looks like he knows what he is doing, let him get the shot". He then asked if I was a good photographer and I said, "I'm not a pro, but I know what I'm doing". Mom was finally convinced and I took a few good shots from a couple different angles and the family didn't fall off the cliff. They thanked me as I handed back the camera and I said, "No problem, stay safe".
Ok, back to the photos. So I'm going to post one from the upper Lookout Point and then a shot from down below. I think it was worth the hike, but some others may not.
Lower Falls - Yellowstone River from Lookout Point up top
Lower Falls from the lower view point
I purposely picked these two photos because they have similar framing. I like the second picture better because you're more level with the falls. In general, I would rather be at the base of the waterfalls taking the photo then above.
I wouldn't blame you if you do not see much difference between the two photos. Maybe I'm just trying to justify my hike, from which I was huffing and puffing by the time I got back up to the top.
The Yellowstone Canyon is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is fairly deep and has some spectacular color. I have been to Grand Canyon National Park and I can see why they compare it. But, I would say the Yellowstone "Grand Canyon" is much easier to photograph. The Grand Canyon is so big, you can never do it justice with a photo.
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - North Rim
There was also a Osprey trying to make a new nest on a hoodoo, I tried to get a shot of it, but didn't have a long enough lens to get a up close and personal shot. I cropped this to about half of the original size and the bird is still a small dot in the middle of the photo... I need bigger lens! When ever I win the lottery, maybe I'll buy one.
After a bite to eat, we headed to the South Rim to check out the Upper Falls from a lot closer. If you look close at the right top side of the falls, you can see people standing there on a rock platform. That would have been were we would have hiked earlier in the day.
As I was turning away after taking the above shot, an older lady tapped me on the shoulder and said, "There's another one over there". I glanced in the direction she was pointing and sure enough, there was this nice little falls. I said thanks and she gave me a little shrug like it was nothing.
Then we moved on to the grand finale of the day, the iconic viewpoint of the Lower Yellowstone River Falls from Artist Point. This is a view that no camera can really do justice but I tried. Hope you enjoy them. Until next time.
Artist Point - Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
