DAY 21 – Canyon Village, Yellowstone (0 miles driven, 7.87 miles walked)
America, what is the obsession with cinnamon and cheese (not together although there is bound to be a meal that has both)?
Breakfast this morning was ordered from a school dinners type counter where one of the options was “French toast” along with that impossibly thin and crispy bacon the Americans specialise in. To me French toast is eggy bread but I decided to check and yep they had added cinnamon to it (🤮) so that was out. I decided to have scrambled egg instead and was surprised to be asked whether I wanted with or without cheese. I could also choose to have scrambled eggs and “fittings” which I assumed must be screws and nails. I passed.
I once read about an American cheese over supply which led to it being put in everything in order to reduce mountain. Us Europeans still consume more cheese per head than the Americans but we tend to eat it raw rather than melt it into every dish we can think of. Also we have cheese other than yellow chedder.
Confusing breakfast concluded we set off for the day to explore. The intension had been to do the South Rim Trail to Artist’s Palette first thing but there was such a heavy mist we wouldn’t have seen anything so instead we drove towards Yellowstone Lake where the weather was better. On the way we stopped at place that included the Mud Cauldron which bubbles away with silver coloured mud deposits.
By this time the mist had lifted and we returned to the start of the South Rim Trail. This had been described in the park litrature as a 3.4 mile walk there and back which seemed doable. The path followed the rim of the canyon until we finally reached Artist’s Palette which is a view back along the canyon to the Lower Falls and very beautiful it is too (see below).
We were somewhat surprised that it had actually been 2.5 miles to reach this point meaning that the total walk would be five miles not 3.4 – that’s some under estimate.
Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t have been much of a problem but Helen and I are both suffering from end of holiday fatigue. I am sure that this is a psychological condition but the closer the flight gets the less energy we seem to have. Not that it really mattered, the car was 2.5 miles back down the trail so we had no choice but to turn round and walk back!
Tomorrow is the longest drive of the holiday as we make our way back down and towards our port of exit.
