Bend News

LOCAL MICRO-CLIMATE CLEARS THE TRAILS EARLY

Yellowstone, Spring Hiking Hot Spot

By Bill Schneider, 5-23-09

Hiking along the Gardiner River on the Rescue Creek Trail; approaching one of the suspension bridges over the Yellowstone River; and hiking with elk. Photos by Marnie and Bill Schneider.

In May, winter still clings tight to most popular hiking areas in the northern Rockies such as Glacier, Frank Church, Wind Rivers, Bitterroots, and Absaroka-Beartooth. This means cabin fever can become a pandemic in May as hikers anxiously wait until late June if not July for the snow to give up the trails.

But unknown to most hikers, they can enjoy fantastic early-season hiking--backpacking or day hiking--on many trails in the northern sections of Yellowstone National Park from early May to early June.

I’ve just returned from three days of hiking around Mammoth and Tower in Yellowstone, all suntanned from the August-like conditions. And this year is no anomaly. Local climate conditions clear these trails early virtually every year, which has always seemed unusual because elevation ranges from 6,200 to 6,500 feet. A few patches of tired snow persist on north-facing slopes, but otherwise, it’s summer.

I’ve hiked most of Yellowstone’s 800 miles of trails and written a hiking guidebook for the park. If you haven’t hiked much in the park, you might not realize how hot and dry it can get in July and August. Plus, most trails in Yellowstone, particularly in the northern sections of the park, meander through open terrain where any shade tree is a premium. I’ve been baked several times in July and August, which is why I look forward to my early-season treks to Yellowstone when it’s cooler and less crowded.

On this trip, I stayed at the historic Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, a marvelous old structure with one wing dating back to 1913 and the rest going up in 1937, and I’d highly recommend it. By day you can watch bison and elk out your window. By night you can listen to ghosts walk the halls doing what ghosts do. And just think--no television or Internet! You can’t get that at Super 8, even if you pay extra. There’s a great restaurant with reasonable prices and a Hamilton convenience store next door. If you have extra time before or after dinner, you can take the Fort Yellowstone walking tour, stroll around Mammoth Hot Springs, one of Yellowstone’s most famous thermal features, or check out the visitor center and Yellowstone Association bookstore.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts manages the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and others in the park and offers early season discounts, which from my perspective are prime season discounts. Click here for details and reservations.

Since much of the Yellowstone backcountry is still covered with snow, wildlife concentrates in open areas along the northern rim of the park. On one of our hikes, we spent a half-hour watching a big cinnamon mamma bear and her jet-black cub grazing for those first forbs and saw antelope, bison, deer, and elk all around, often serenaded by the distinctive shriek of the red-tailed hawk looking for those foolish newborn ground squirrels or watching the golden eagle ride the thermals overhead looking for a fat marmot.

The bison and elk are a bit mangy-looking in May as they cast off their winter fur coat, but you can see those cute calves at their sides. This concentration of ungulates means you’re more likely to see the most charismatic megafauna of them all, grizzly bears and wolves. I’ve seen them on past May trips, but not this time.

Yellowstone is famous for its wildflowers. In May, the first act of big show is open for business--and free--and not just traditionally early pasqueflowers and phlox, but also larkspur, kittentails, buttercups, shooting stars and many more.

And perhaps my favorite part, no bugs! In July, Yellowstone’s mosquito crop can block out the sun on a clear day, but not in May, nor will you have to worry about surviving those truly evil horse flies, which can swarm you in July, but don’t show their beady, blood-thirsty eyes in May.

For me, probably the only downside of a May trip to Yellowstone is no fishing. The park doesn’t open to fishing until Memorial Day weekend, but you couldn’t fish anyway because the streams are often blown out with snowmelt.

On this trip, we hit the runoff at its peak and the Yellowstone River was an awesome sight to see as it sped through the Black Canyon like a giant fire hose unleashed. Actually, it was more like the Brownstone River, as the chocolate-colored torrent carried a few million tons of Yellowstone Park off to be deposited in reservoirs in North and South Dakota. We took two hikes down to suspension bridges over the river, and they shock with the power of nature rushing below.

The spring runoff also makes some trails, such as Specimen Ridge and Lamar River Trail impassible because you can’t safely ford the swollen streams, but this still leaves plenty of hiking. Here are a few of my favorites: Beaver Ponds, Crevice Lake, Hellroaring, Garnet Hill, Slough Creek, Rescue Creek, Lava Creek, Lamar River (to Cache Creek) and Black Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Backpackers can enjoy a variety of overnighters, such as down to Hellroaring Creek or Crevice Lake, and the 21.5-mile Black Canyon route from the Hellroaring Trailhead to Gardiner is lined with superb campsites and makes an epic, early-season, two- or three-night backpacking trip.

So, hikers, even if it’s too late to schedule a trip this year, plan on one next spring. Watch the weather report and as soon as you see a few sunny days on the horizon, grab your hiking boots and bear spray and head for Yellowstone.

For more information:

Yellowstone Country
The Yellowstone Association
Xanterra Parks & Resorts

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