Yellowstone - off the beaten path.

Son and the girlfriend are headed to Yellowstone in 3 weeks. They're going to do the typical tourist spots, but are also looking for some nice hikes away from the crowds, 1 day of fishing, and of course grizzly and wolf spotting.

I can't help them as I've never really did any hiking up there. I've driven the Hayden Valley road back and forth critter viewing, have seen grizzlies but never a wolf, but my research tonight tells me there are no real hiking trails in that area. Is that true? What are your favorite trails in Yellowstone? Are there any great geothermal features that are really worth going on a good hike to see? (After a day on the main loop they all start to look the same to me.)
Anyone know of a great fishing hole and how is the Yellowstone River? It looks like Heaven for fishing but I've never had the privilege. Favorite flies or lures for late July? And I assume Bear spray is manditory for hiking i the park?

Both these kids are fitness nuts and in great shape so that part isn't an issue.

THANKS!

I purchased a book with Yellowstone trails the last time I was in the park. It showed the trail difficulty, length, and features of each trail within the park. I don't recall the cost of the book but it was worth the price and I's sure every park store has them. They can check availability on Amazon and have the book to review before the trip if they want more time to plan.

The Grizzly's are not all that common in Yellowstone but I recommend bear spray. It's well worth it for those rare instances but they need to insure the spray is easily accessible in hand or on a belt, not stored in pack.

I'll search for the lake name where I did well when I fished there. It was a short hike but the lake was beautiful and I caught a couple pretty large trout which is not all that common in the park.

Yellowstone is a wonderful and mystical park and I hope they enjoy their trip.

Check out Cooke City and the Bear Tooth Highway, it is considered the most scenic road in America. I haven't fished it but I have a friend that fishes Slough [sic] Creek they say its good and I think there are some geothermal features, as someone got hurt years ago. I love yellowstone have fun.

Thanks guys, keep the info coming.

In the future they may also do a winter trip. Elk herd in Jackson Hole is huge at that time and the geysers and hot springs are awesome in the winter. I also did a snowmobile trip through the park but I don't know if they still do those. Yellowstone is great any time of the year !!

If you do any hiking at all you will get away from the crowds.. it seems that 90% of the people in the park don't go more than a few hundred yards from the road. Lone Star Geyser for instance is one of the best geysers in the park but it's a 5 mile round trip hike so when we got out there there were only a couple other people there. Most of the other hikes are the same way.

I've read about Lone Star. From what I gather that's one of the nicest hikes to one of the features.
And I agree StagLefty, I think winter in the park would be an awesome experience.

I was just up in Jackson Hole visiting Teton National Park last week. With the temperature, you have to get out early to see the animals as in first light and before. On this past Sunday we entered the park at about 5:40am. Saw one grizzly bear 20 yards off the road about 1 mile into the Park. We then parked the car at Jackson Lake Lodge and took a short hike up the trail (lunch tree trail) to overlook the a huge park of willows. All the animals still have fairly young calves/babies right now so it's what the grizzlies and wolves are feeding on. While sitting up there we saw somewhere around 75-100 elk in total along with their calves, 3 moose, and two more grizzly bears. I'd highly recommend purchasing the bear spray if you're going to walk around in the park.

Yellowstone is one of my favorite parks to visit. Finally saw wolves 3 years ago running along a river trying to get to a huge bull elk in a field on the other side. I believe it was just east of the buffalo in Lamar valley at dusk. Bring a spotting scope if you want to view the wolves.

Major spots never disappoint either.


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