{"id":8123,"date":"2013-07-17T02:22:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T08:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=8123"},"modified":"2013-08-05T19:06:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T01:06:29","slug":"hike-uncle-toms-trail-for-closeup-view-of-yellowstones-lower-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=8123","title":{"rendered":"Hike Uncle Tom’s Trail for close-up view of Yellowstone’s Lower Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Uncle<\/a> Uncle Tom’s Trail in Yellowstone National Park offers a close-up view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. (Ruffin Prevost\/Yellowstone Gate)<\/p>\n

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Parked for a Day<\/a> is a user-submitted feature that lets readers share favorite activities in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Parked for a Day activities require parking the car, and can be done in a single day. Share your favorite Parked for a Day activity<\/a> and we’ll feature it on Yellowstone Gate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Ruffin Prevost<\/h3>\n

There are plenty of places in Yellowstone National Park where you can a great view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. But there’s only one spot where you’ll feel like you truly “earned” the view.<\/p>\n

Uncle Tom’s Trail is a strenuous series of more than 300 steel stairs that drop 500 feet, descending about three quarters of the way form the canyon rim toward the river below.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a> More than 300 steps make up Uncle Tom’s Trail to view the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park. They look even more daunting on the way up. (Ruffin Prevost\/Yellowstone Gate)<\/p>\n

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It’s not an easy trip, but it’s one that can be done at a slow and measured pace, with plenty of benches and spots for resting along the way. The hike back up will get you winded and spent, but you’ll have a view of the falls that most park visitors never experience in person.<\/p>\n

H.F. “Uncle Tom” Richardson was an early guide and concessionaire who built the trail<\/a> in 1898. It originally extended all the way to the river, and featured ropes along a dirt path to allow hikers to steady themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the completion of the Chittenden Bridge in 1903 and the installation by the National Park Service of wooden steps along the trail in 1905, Richardson realized few visitors would choose to pay $1 each for him to guide them along his rope-lined trail. Uncle Tom soon discontinued paid trips along the trail that still bears his name.<\/p>\n

The Park Service replaced the wooden steps with metal ones in the 1930s, according to park historian Lee Whittlesey’s book, “Storytelling in Yellowstone: Horse and Buggy Tour Guides<\/a>.” Around that same time, a series of heavy snows over several winters tore up those metal stairs closest to the river, and the Park Service truncated the trail to its current length.<\/p>\n