Hike to Fish -- the yellowstone

Frequent readers know that we like to hike into places to fish. We have done this hike before and are repeating since the hike is great and the fishing can be exceptional.  The option is to walk down to the river from the massive parking lot and encounter tons of tourists and other fishermen, or, hike the "other side" and encounter no one.. we'll take the latter thank you.

The hike is modestly flat, high up over the yellowstone, but then descends a bunch to arrive at the river. The only "problem" is we have to schlep out at the end of the day -- straight up about 600-700'.

Friendly and cute Marmot along the way --- added as first image because of the way FB works.

The  hike in

High over the Yellowstone River

Yellowstone gorge views.

At the high point, now it is time to descend.

Time to fish -- Alicia has one on

A happy fisher person

The walk along the smelly sulfur flats.

A nice Yellowstone cutthroat.

Time to schlep out.

"The Schlep"

Mr Marmot on the return --- still working on his tan!

well dressed fisherman

What the well dressed fisherman wears.

---  long pants, long sleeved shirt, gloves, and a buff pulled up over his head

All because the damn horse flies were out in numbers and the damn things bite!

Hike to Fish --- Fan Creek

So, many of our "regular" reader have over time noted that we like to "hike to fish".  This day we hiked out to Fan Creek, a spot that we initially did years ago..... a time that we had to rush out because there was a forest fire approaching.

The hike is relatively flat, about 3 miles and it accesses a pretty nice meadow.

 Alicia, in the meadow, on the path to Fan Creek

3 miles later arriving at Fan Creek

Monkeyflower at streamside

HorseFly fashion  - the flies were real bad

Yellow Paintbrush

Elephant's Head -- click to enlarge and check out how the petal actually does look like an elephant's head with big ears and trunk

 On the way out

The wildflowers are everywhere in the meadow area

Red Paintbrush

Animals in the Roadway --- riiiight!

If you have been to YNP, you know that there are bison/buffalo most everywhere. Well the Lamar Valley has, as told to me, upwards to 3000-3500 scattered over a few herds. We spent a few days in the Lamar as we fished the area: there are 3-4 major rivers in that area and the fishing is considered some of the best in the US.

Each time that we entered the Lamar Valley we are in awe of the expanse of the landscape and the spread of the bison. They were everywhere. ...  and the expanse was very hard to photograph.

Well on this day, after fishing, we ended up in the midst of the herd migration ... basically from one side of the road to the other.  It took about 15 minutes, until a YNP bus just started to plow through them and move them off the  road --- a great technique to have observed!

It was actually pretty awesome to just be in.

You can see the migration all the way down the road.

next to the car

The American Serengeti

Bears

Bear sitings are generally considered to be somewhat rare. Well, this year was different. Firstly, Bear #1, a black bear, walked through our campsite in West Yellowstone ... no camera handy. And then, on a drive from Big Sky to West Yellowstone, we had two more sitings.

We maintained our distance --- all photos with telephoto zoom 300mm

Bear #2

About 2 miles farther down the road -- Bear #3

Bear #4 was seen as it ran through our campsite in Tower Falls in Yellowstone just a few days ago. It was a juvenile chasing a baby fawn -- either playing with it or thinking it was dinner. It was about 6' away from us as we were eating dinner. Thankfully it was not as interested in shrimp scampi over linguini as it was in the baby fawn (we don't think the bear caught the fawn).

Bears #5 & #6 were in Yellowstone National Park, on the side of the road... a mother and her cub. Oooh, so cute! 

There was actually another bear encounter, though remotely. We were fishing on the Tower Creek, just down from our campsite, working our way upstream, when a guide and her clients were making a fast exit because they saw a bear on the trail. We followed her lead and scadaddled out of there.

rainey to cache

The folks that we sat for in Driggs kindly let us use their float boat for use on the Teton River -- which was very nearby. In the beginning, the water was too high to fish so we had to wait for the water to recede.

It took well into the end of the sit but we finally managed to float and fish the Teton River.... from Rainey Bridge to Cache Bridge.

The river with the Tetons as the backdrop was pretty nice, and we met some new furry friends.


Fishing from the boat

The trendy fisherwoman in her skirt.

Teton Backdrop

 Couple of moose

Mister Guide

always nice to get out of the boat -- and the guide fishes!

Nice backdrop!