A Very (Very) Long Day

After several hours of in and out of the car, I finally decided to call it as far as making it to Lamar Canyon. By this time in the day, it was about 2:30 and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. I was starving. So I pulled off at a picnic spot and had my sandwiches whilst listening to the creek nearby. Exciting, right? Yeah, I know. Where am I going with this? I haven't a clue.

Well, the trip back was pretty cool. I came through this valley that had a herd of bison on the other side of the river. There were a few folks out there fly fishing but no where near where I was going. After I parked, I walked probably 1/4 mile down to the river (don't worry, there was no van) and just hung out there for a while. Cue the River Runs Through It music again...

The bison, by the way, are off in the distance on the left side. Spoiler alert, I get A LOT closer.

Good spot though, right? Here's another one of the river (and one artsy pic).

Just to give you guys an idea how far away some of this stuff is, check out the below pic. This is the same valley and river as above but about 3-5 miles further south. I wanted to stop here and get a panoramic shot (4 shots wide) and there was a truck parked there. Well, these guys had to have been fishing somewhere within walking distance so I pulled out the trusty binoculars to try to find them. No joke, it took me 5 minutes or so to find them down by the river in the below picture. Can you spot them? There's two of them by the way.

So in case you forgot, I'm heading back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone village which is where I was camping that night. Obviously, I wanted to allow plenty of time at and in the canyon before dinner. But then I came across this...

And like any good idiot, I had to stop and ask what was going on. Here's the conversation I had with a nice couple from California...

Me - So what are we looking at?

Them - Well, we've been told there's a bear eating a bison down there somewhere.

Me - Wait, you haven't actually seen it?

Them - No, but they say it's down there.

Me - You've got to be shitting me. Oh well, you guys take care.

There were dozens of people even all the way out in the field just checking out the "bear" eating the "bison". Personally, I didn't and don't buy it. And yes, I did ask a few more people but no one could verify. It's like a nasty rumor or something. Where was I? Oh yeah, making my way to the canyon.

I learned there are two major falls in the canyon. Here's a video of the top one.

Here's the canyon and just one section of the steps down (328 to be exact).

A shot of Trent at the overlook. To put the size in perspective, zoom in on the upper right portion of the falls where you'll see another overlook. A 6 foot tall person looks rather small, yes?

And finally, a shot of the victorious stair climber (masking his exhaustion) and the overall canyon from a different overlook.

So, once again, I checked into the campground after a disappointing dinner. A funny comment about my firewood purchase though.

Me - Can I also buy some firewood?

Campground attendant - Sure. That'll be $7.

Me - No problem. I like making fires. I mean, um, the safe kind.

And presto, FIRE! Looking forward to another (cold) great night's sleep after an exhausting day. The next day would hold the most terrifying moment and hardest hike of the trip. Ah, foreshadowing...

Venture on, venture with your box of firewood entirely too close to the actual fire.