The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is one of the areas of the park I honestly did not even realize existed. Of course I had seen photos of it. But I never knew it was actually a part of Yellowstone National Park. A not so quick 2 hour drive from our camp ground with at stop at the Bridge Bay Marina, the Mud Geyser Basin and a drive through the iconic Hayden Valley. We had arrived. We opted to go to Artist Point on the south side of the Yellowstone River vs the viewpoint on the north side of the river. The main reason? There were also several trailheads on the south side of the river that we wanted to check out.
Artist Point
First things first, we walked out to the Artist Point view point. It was gorgeous – and also VERY CROWDED. The bright side is that we were able to escape the crowds incredibly quickly and get even better views that we had initially. How? Simply by taking the trail head from the back of Artist Point out along the canyon edge. The trail follows the canyon wall for about 0.7 miles before turning into the forest and heading toward several small lakes.
Ribbon Lake Trail via Artist Point
I found this trail on a whim while researching this section of the park. All Trails has the hike listed as 4.1 miles round trip and 600 feet of elevation. After the first 0.7 mile the trail turned into the forest and quickly came to Lily Pad Lake. The lake was absolutely aptly named and covered in lily pads. It was also obviously a geothermal feature as it was incredibly warm, though not intolerably so.
Just after Lily Pad Lake the trail split, and following to the left was Ribbon Lake another mile down the trail. The hike took us through an area that had clearly suffered a fire a few years ago, and then back into older growth forest. Just before Ribbon Lake the elevation drops down 200 feet. With the elevation drop came a ruthless onslaught of mosquitos. To the point that we ended up turning around before we even got down to the lake to enjoy the view.
Point Sublime
On the way back to the car we took a detour and continued down the canyon to Point Sublime. The viewpoint gave a gorgeous view of the end of the canyon where the river widens.
Before you go
The parking at Artist Point was small, we were able to snag a good spot though. I could only imagine the parking here during a year that is busy for Yellowstone National Park. It would definitely require additional planning and being prepared to change your plans last minute. For more information about this section of the park check out the NPS page.
Yellowstone National Park is MASSIVE! Looking at maps it honestly does not do the vastness of the park justice. It is so huge, and with that size comes a good amount of time to get from place to place. We stayed on the south side of the park. To get to this trail head was an hour and half drive from our campground.
Like most national parks, Yellowstone is not very dog friendly. Rightfully so with all the thermal features. My pup Winter sat out on this adventure. The park fees are standard, and they do honor the national parks pass if you have one, which of course we did.
There is so much more to Yellowstone National Park than what is featured in this blog post. Check out the National Parks Page on the website to see all the other adventures we had over our 10 days visit. These adventures include:
- Geyser Basins of Yellowstone
- Artists Point – Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
- Hiking to Ribbon Lake
- Boating on Lake Yellowstone
- Hiking to Natural Bridge
- Driving All of Yellowstone in 1 Day + All the fun roadside viewpoints and stops
- Hiking Cascade Creek Falls
PLUS on this trip we spent time in Grand Tetons National Park hiking and exploring.
- Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point
- Two Oceans Lake
- Grand View Point
- Hiking Taggert and Bradley Lake Loop
This hike was the grand canyon of yellowstone for sure. It was great except for the mosquitoes nearly carried us farther back into the park….. had to hike fast….
Right! I was not expecting those mosquitos! Even with bug spray, they just did not care.