Guests will travel through Hayden Valley when Traveling between Lake Village and Canyon Village.
Hayden Valley is the remains of an ancient Lake Yellowstone. Today, it is a wildlife paradise with the largest population of wild buffalo in the world. Hayden valley is located right in the middle of Yellowstone National Park on the north end of Lake Yellowstone. It is easily accessed by the east and west entrances to the park.
The Yellowstone River begins by weaving its way through the Hayden Valley on its way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Along its way, several creeks throughout Hayden Valley join the Yellowstone river including Alum and Otter Creek.
We saw a ton of animals in this valley. It was full of buffalo and we even saw an elk and big horned sheep. You can see in these pictures what it is like to travel down the valley The river started meandering through grassland and the herds buffalo would wander through eating as they go.
While Yellowstone is a wild and natural place, we thought it was quite funny when big animals hung out by the road. Look at this Elk!
Now, take a big step backward and see the rest of the scene:
Sometimes watching the people watch the animals was the funniest part of the day!
Gradually, the pace of the current picked up and the valley slowly narrowed to a nice streaming mountain river. This is from a site where we had our lunch:
More and more trees began to pop up along the banks of the river. This was a perfect spot for a picnic. Can you see the marks on the trees? We suspect these are rubs from buffalo. Buffalo really love the valley and tended to wander up and down the riverside.
