JUNE 2026 · ADVENTURE
Yellowstone - Grand Canyon & Backcountry
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone · Wyoming
Two days out of Midway Geyser Basin, the road climbed into forest - dense lodgepole and a couple of passes over 8,000 feet, snow still holding in the shade. We saw more wildlife from the truck than from any trail: a black bear working the slope below the road, elk in twos and threes at the treeline, a small bison herd browsing close enough to the tarmac to slow traffic.
Camp was a site at the edge of a bigger campground, right where the gravel gave way to trees. Partway through cooking a bull elk stepped out of the treeline, browsed for a few minutes without acknowledging us, antlers still in velvet, then wandered back into the dark.
Lower Falls from the rim, from the trail below the rim, from every pull-off the road offered.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone — June 2026
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone took the second day - rhyolite streaked orange and rust, sunbleached in places, wind-bent pines holding on wherever the rock gave them a ledge.
I kept stopping for one more angle of the same water: Lower Falls from the rim, from the trail below the rim, from every pull-off the road offered.
The third day we went looking for a quieter fall off the main loop instead - a couple of other people scattered along the bank, water working over rust-toned boulders, no railing between us and it.
Hikers pause on a rock ledge before a secluded backcountry waterfall pool
A bull elk with velvet antlers pauses at the edge of a forest clearing
A forest waterfall tumbles between steep rocky banks flanked by pines
A hidden waterfall drops over mossy rock, framed by dense pine branches
Sunbleached, striated canyon walls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone dotted with pines
Weathered rhyolite cliffs of the canyon show streaked mineral staining and scattered conifers
Vertical rock ribs and scattered pines texture the sunlit canyon wall above the Yellowstone River
Whitewater rapids churn through a narrow rock-walled stretch of the Yellowstone canyon
Yellowstone River churns white through a narrow gorge between weathered canyon walls
Lower Falls plunges into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, river winding through banded orange cliffs
Lower Falls drops between canyon walls as the river winds south through the gorge
Sunlit rhyolite cliffs streaked pink and cream along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Wind-bent pines cling to a steep, colour-streaked canyon wall above the rushing river
Yellowstone River bends past pale mineral terraces at the base of a forested canyon
Vertical sweep of the Yellowstone River carving through steep, sunlit canyon walls
River bend glows turquoise against ochre canyon walls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Lower Falls thunders over the canyon rim in a wall of mist, framed by pine boughs
Stop sign and traffic barrels mark a roadside construction stop near the park entrance
Small forest waterfall spills over mossy, lichen-stained boulders
Fallen logs span a rushing forest river lined with pine and scattered deadfall
Water cascades between rust-toned boulders at a hidden backcountry falls
Hiker in orange beanie surveys a rocky river bend beneath an overhanging boulder
Quiet forest river bends past wildflowers and pine-studded rock outcrops
A lightweight backpacking tent pitched in a grassy clearing as an elk grazes behind camp