Artist Point Winter

The view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone from Artist Point is one of the classic images of the American West. Never mind that the artist it was named for, Thomas Moran, never painted a view from here, or probably never even stood here. This section of the Yellowstone River would qualify as a national park all by itself. Millions of people have stood here, some of them in awestruck silence, absorbing the low whisper of the falling water a mile away, the clean smells, the cool breeze, the colors and textures of the canyon walls, the precarious lives of the trees, the overwhelming sense of vastness and with gratitude for the foresight and the luck we have had that this place is still wild and protected.