"I'm beginning to see a pattern here," my travel buddy comments. "A canyon. Pine trees. A waterfall. Boom! It makes your list."
I give him my long look. "So?"
"Just sayin'."
Well, seriously, is there anything more beautiful than a massive waterfall plunging hundreds of feet into a river roaring between a canyon wall? Whenever I witness such a scene, my heart races with pure joy, and as I discovered while researching the geology of Yellowstone, I'm not the only one who is struck dumb by such dramatic beauty.
"I turned and looked forward from the brink of the great canyon, at a point just across from what is now called Inspiration Point. I sat there in amazement, while my companions came up, and after that, it seemed to me that it was five minutes before anyone spoke." Charles Cook, 1869
There are two waterfalls at the canyon's beginning and then the Yellowstone River twists and turns for 24 miles between rocky walls that rise 800 to 1,200 feet. It is the river, of course, that created the canyon over 10,000 years ago through constant erosion. The river travels for another 600 miles ending in North Dakota where it empties into the mighty Missouri.
"So you don't think The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone deserves to be on my Most Beautiful Places on Earth list?"
"I didn't say that. It absolutely does. It's awesome."
(With that being said, stay tuned folks. There are other places I've visited that have made my list AND they don't include waterfalls!)
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