Yellowstone’s Perfect Waterfall Rainbow in the Lower Falls from Artist Point overlooking the Grand Canyon.
We were never supposed to be there.
We were never supposed to see Yellowstone’s perfect waterfall rainbow, and by all rights we shouldn’t have had the privilege since we had no idea such a thing existed.
Sometimes you need lady luck to shine down upon you when traveling.
Had the parking lot for Uncle Tom’s Trail not been closed, our Kia Sedona would not have found a spot near the toilets in the Artist Point parking lot overflowing with cars and tour buses on that sunny Monday morning last month. The mere fact that we found a spot, any spot, in the lot teeming with eager visitors was something of a miracle.
If we’d laced up our hiking boots in our cabin back in West Yellowstone, and made the hour+ drive to Artist Point with them on, we wouldn’t have needed to spend those minutes in the parking lot with legs raised on the back bumper of the Sedona to change out of flip flops and slip-ons, and to cuff jeans higher to accommodate for the blast of summer heat that greeted us there, we would never have seen nature’s perfect rainbow rise up from the Lower Falls along the Yellowstone River.
Whoa it’s hot. Got cuff ‘dem jeans a little bit higher for this hike from Artist Point in Yellowstone!
We had no knowledge of the perfect waterfall rainbow that emerges at the bottom of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon Lower Falls waterfall every clear day at around 9:55 AM. It’s not why we traveled to that particular piece of Yellowstone on that Monday morning.
You can be damn sure though it is what we will remember forever from that Monday morning.
It was pure luck that led to us standing right there at Artist Point, looking at the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, with 5 minutes to spare, eavesdropping on a private tour guide telling his group to “wait…wait…wait for it”…and all the while, in my mind, I was like, “what in the hell are we waiting for, exactly?”
And then I figured it out.
And then I saw it.
Holy. Freaking. Crap.
Yellowstone’s Perfect Waterfall Rainbow is almost in full bloom in the waterfall as seen from Artist Point in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon.
A rainbow that grew in vibrancy over 1, 2 maybe 3 minutes and then, poof, as quickly as it rose up to meet our eyes from Artist Point, the perfect waterfall rainbow was gone, back down in the water and mist and rock. How this happens is a wonder, why it happens on clear days at roughly the same time every morning is a mystery of nature.
Part of me doesn’t want to know the how and why of it all, just as I don’t question the series of decisions, happy accidents, and happenstance that put us at Artist Point at that exact moment.
Sometimes perfection doesn’t need examination, only appreciation.
Here’s a little bit of what we saw on our way to stumbling into perfection at Artist Point in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon and a view down river as we started on what would end up being the worst hike of our lives, to the sticky, buggy and boring Ribbon Lake.
Sure, they are everywhere but photographing bison in Yellowstone never gets old.
We stopped for some early morning geyser smoke on our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
A view down river after the rainbow in the waterfall magically disappeared for the day.
Thanks to Kia for sponsoring this cross country road trip, for having ample room in the Sedona for all those hiking boots, and for a welcoming bumper with which to prop up our legs to properly prepare for a new adventure every day.
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