Finally, we slept in this day, well until 7, and headed out of Silver Gate towards the Canyon area of Yellowstone.  There no wolf activity in the Lamar Valley, so we didn’t slow down.  (You quickly learn to figure out when a group of people is looking AT something versus looking FOR something.)   Near where we saw fox of a couple of days earlier, one was prowling around in a low area.  The light was perfect and it posed even more perfectly.

At Canyon we drove straight to Artist’s Point on the south rim of The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone for the obligatory picture.  From there we hiked out Point Sublime, quickly leaving the masses behind.  We had lunch nearby and headed up to the Mt Washburn Trailhead.  This is just about the easier way to hike to 10,000+.  The trailhead is a little over 3 miles one way, 1500 ft of elevation gain, and is an old roadbed so climbs very gradually.  The only wildlife was many Clark’s Nutcrakers and ground squirrels.  No Bighorn Sheep, no marmots, no bears.  On the way down I showed Sue a very nice pair of Grizzly prints on the trail – I saw them on the way up and did not point them out!  The summit was super windy and cold and the smoke from several fires limited the views.

Back to Canyon we went over to Inspiration Point for sunset, the same smoke that limited our views made for a great sunset!

http://matthewmperry.zenfolio.com/yellowstone09/slideshow