JUNE 12 YELLOWSTONE - LAST DAY

June 12 Yellowstone – last day

This is our last day, so we decided to check out a trail (Bacon Rind Creek) we had explored years ago. 

 It is the only trail in the park that heads west, and it is not accessible from the normal roads in the park. You have to exit the park to the west through West Yellowstone, and travel north outside the park for  20 miles before encountering it.  Unfortunately to get to West Yellowstone we had to retrace our steps through the awful construction north of Norris to reach the Madison Junction and exit west to West Yellowstone.

Stream above Norris

We made it to West Yellowstone in time for a really good lunch at the Slippery Otter Pub, and headed up to Bacon Rind Creek Trail.

Visitors in West Yellowstone 

Slippery Otter Pub Bar

This is a flat trail that goes along the creek, --pretty but not exciting. 

The exciting part was seeing the continuous line of tracks on the narrow trail….mountain lion and then later wolf!  We kept an eye out to make sure we were not on anyone’s menu that day.

Mountain Lion Tracks (pads only)  (6"x 8")

Wolf Tracks (notice claws)

Wolf and Mountain Lion tracks

Bacon Rind Creek

After this hike, we continued north and tried to hike Fan Creek Trail but the water levels were so high, it was impossible to continue.  The trail crossed the Gallatin River which also ran along the highway.

The Gallatin is a beautiful river nestled between mountains.  Chick tried his hand at fly fishing in the Gallatin for about an hour, but no luck.

Gallatin River

From there we headed home (still 2+ hours away) so we could get Snoopy ready to depart tomorrow.  We have had a great time in Yellowstone again and I am already looking forward to our next trip here.