Uncle Tom's Trail, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park

          Within the first few days of my stay in Yellowstone I went on a tour of the park.  One of the stops on this tour was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It is indeed a grand canyon.  Within the canyon there are two dramatic water falls.  They are described as the upper and lower falls.

           Our tour guide pointed out all the  sights and hikes that could be taken to view the falls and one of these was Uncle Tom's Trail.  Our guide gave us some history about the trail and described it as a staircase that descended 500 feet.  

            I had not been in the park very long and I had not acclimated  to the altitude yet.   The thought of making that hike was the last thing on my list.  I have now been in the park for almost five months and I have gotten use to the thin air.  I made the hike down. 


The stair case is hung off the side of the canyon wall.  It is made of expanded metal and you can see through it.  As you are walking down the stair case there can be forty or fifty feet between the stair case and the ground below.  That was kind of interesting.

 It was not as bad as I thought. Or maybe I am in better shape than I thought.  The first thing you see is the spray from the waterfall.  It created a rainbow effect and the mist covered the sides of the canyon with spray that ran back down to the river. The views from the observation deck were amazing and well worth the climb.