In the fall of 2010, while my wife and I were taking a walk, I found myself thinking about how we had recently become empty-nesters and how that would simplify our travel opportunities. I asked her if she could visit anywhere she wanted to in the next year, where would that be? After a couple of minutes, she said Yellowstone National Park, so when we got back to the house, we started planning for it. I wanted to have plenty of time there. It is a very large park with numerous sights, but you also have to contend with occasional bad weather. We figured on staying a couple of days each at four different lodges around the park over the course of 8 days. Those lodges fill up very quickly, and to secure just the dates and locations we wanted, we had to book nearly 12 months in advance.
During the trip, our second lodge was at Canyon Village, near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. There are several good viewing points along both sides of the canyon. As we explored them mid-morning, we arrived at Artist’s Point, which offers a well-known view of lower Yellowstone Falls. The sun was just high enough at that time to be lighting up most of the falls, but still low enough to throw some nice, defining shadows.
As we walked along the path to the viewpoint, we could see a rainbow in the mist that was thrown out by the falls. I quickly found a nice spot, set up my tripod, and took a few shots. Within 10 minutes or so of setting up, the sun had moved enough that the rainbow was fading out. It was just my good fortune to have arrived pretty much in the nick of time.
