Lookout Point

Lookout Point is a north-rim overlook on North Rim Drive above the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The main view looks down to the 308-foot Lower Falls, with yellow and orange canyon walls dropping around the river. It is a good way to see the falls without committing to a steep descent into the canyon. For a photo, keep the Lower Falls framed by the colored walls; the canyon gives the waterfall its scale.

The main lookout is a short walk from the parking area. The steeper route toward Red Rock Point is a different outing, with stairs and a hard climb back up, so skip it if you only want the rim view. Parking can fill at busy times; go earlier if this is a stop you do not want to miss. Stay behind the guardrails along the rim.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone runs about 20 miles and is more than 1,000 feet deep. Lower Falls drops 308 feet into it, though from the rim the waterfall can look small beside the walls. Hydrothermal activity altered the rhyolite, softening it for the Yellowstone River to erode; iron and sulfur compounds help create the yellow, orange, and brown colors. One estimate puts an earlier canyon here around 160,000 to 140,000 years old. Other research says much of today's canyon formed during and after the last ice age, probably through floods. Exactly how those floods cut it is still debated.

Osprey nest in the canyon from late April to early September. Watch for them soaring above the river or returning to their large nests; ravens and swallows use the canyon too.