Camping
in the Lake area, we made dinner in the dark, slept, then got up before dawn
and snuck down to Lake Yellowstone to watch sunrise over the water. We saw
a porcupine waddling down the beach, but it was too dark to get good photos.
We drove up to the Hayden Valley looking for bison in the morning light, but didn't find many. We broke camp and headed up towards the Lamar Valley.
From "The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone", we knew both that this is where the wolves had been reintroduced, and that we'd probably not see one unless we were really lucky. The area was arid again, open scrubland strewn with boulders, dropped from the last glacier.
We
did find some interesting rapids to play in and around on the Lamar River,
and also found a small lake with a trumpeter
swan in residence.
Back
in the main tourist area, we hiked down to the bottom of Tower Falls. Young
art students were scattered across the scree field with their sketch pads,
and Scott had to wait for several of them to get out of the Falls' pool before
snapping his photos. After the Washburn hike the previous day, the climb back
up to the top was hard on the legs.