An Epic Excursion on Bear Tooth Highway

We forgot that we had one more hiking and touring expedition while we were staying in the Cody, Wyoming area.  We had heard that there was still 8-10 ft of snow up on Bear Tooth Highway in late June, so we had to go up and see that for ourselves!  We actually took two trips; the first was a truck tour on a 210 mile loop on Chief Joseph Scenic Highway and Bear Tooth Highway, the second trip was a hike off Chief Joseph Scenic Highway on Dead Indian Trail.  There is an awesome story in our country's history about how Dead Indian Pass got its name.

Chief Joseph Scenic Highway is seen winding through the hills below.

The Dead Indian Pass is portal between the mountains and the plains where great game herds migrated seasonally.  Many Indian hunting and war parties, and miners seeking their fortunes in Cooke City crossed this pass.  In 1877 Chief Joseph led his Nez Perce Indians in a strategic and defensive retreat as they were pursued by what was left of the Seventh Calvary of the U.S. Army.  The Seventh Calvary had almost been wiped out a year earlier with General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  The Nez Perce knew the Army did not intend to leave a single survivor in vindication and this became a fight for their lives.  The Nez Perce were 600 strong with 2,000 horses.  They had been on the run for more than 60 days and were exhausted, sick and wounded.  The Army had encircled the Yellowstone area with more than 20 Companies leaving no escape route for the Nez Perce.  The Nez Perce knew the Army was a little more than a day behind them.  Led by Chief Joseph and Lean Elk the Nez Perce milled their horses in all directions near Dead Indian Pass to leave a confusion of tracks.  Accounts tell us that the Nez Perce left a wounded warrior on this hill.  He was discovered and killed by Army Scouts, and this area then became known as Dead Indian Pass.  Then they back tracked down a rough canyon to the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River.   The misdirection worked, it confused the Army scouts long enough for the Nez Perce Indians to accomplish the unbelievable and successfully escape! 

At the trail head of Dead Indian Trail there was a corral with someone's nice Bay in there.

The Bay noticed us as we passed by.

Beware the Bear!

Steve starts down the trail.

 Sap on the pine cone.

 Majestic hills.

That's Gari out front now.

We walked above Dead Indian Creek.  This is a spot where a fairly deep miniature canyon was carved out over the ages.  The run off from the melting snow has been substantial this year and you will see more evidence of that in later pictures.

 Gari pauses to take in the beauty around us.

Gari finds our picnic spot with a nice big rock to sit on.

For dining entertainment, we had our own little waterfall of runoff plunging into the rushing waters of the creek below.

 

Be careful, you don't want to fall in here!

We finished our trail snack and departed the canyon area.

Gari looks back over our trail as she contemplates being lost somewhere in America.

 Steve never realized he was lost.

Next stop a little picnic area that appeared to have some flooding and pretty stunning runoff waterfalls; thought we had better check that out.  We had the place to ourselves.

The picnic area was right on the rushing waters of Dead Indian Creek. 

Gari examines a small runoff stream flowing right through the picnic area.

We had to cross to see the source of the water.  Gari lines up the jump...

 and Geronimo!

The runoff cascades down through the forest.

The water floods most of the meadow.  Tiny waterfalls expose every drop off.

 Steve goes ahead down into the creek bottom in search of the spectacular runoff falls.

Looks like there are predators down here.  What ever that was, all that's left is the whiskers!

 A major cascade coming out of the forest.

 The entire area appears flooded and the water just falls into the swollen creek.

 Waterfalls everywhere!

Last look and ready to head up out of the bush.

 Back on top, no bears up here.  Another fine hike completed.  Now on to see all that June snow on Bear Tooth Highway we have heard about.

As we started up Bear Tooth Highway toward Red Lodge, MT we saw a few pristine mountain lakes and the snow melt rushing runoff that feeds them.

Bear Tooth Mountains.

Swollen Lake Creek which flows into Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River.

Another swollen creek rushing toward the already swollen Clarks Fork.

 Gari smiling by the rush of Lake Creek.

Bear Tooth Mountains from Lake Creek area.  There is some snow up here, but we want to see how much.

Getting higher now and crossing a barely thawed stream in the otherwise frozen landscape.

Well there it is!  I would agree that is about 8-10 ft of snow.  Who would have thought at the end of June?!

Another surprise, an operating ski lift at the end of June!

 Last pass going into Red Lodge, MT.

This was our picnic spot on the truck tour day.  Lots of snow up here.

Steve makes a snowball in June while eating his granola bar.

 Just then a snowmobiler climbs the hill in the distance, see him?

Below is a more clear shot.

Yep, there's snow up on Bear Tooth in late June...

Lots of snow.

And Gari takes us out of this epic excursion until the next one...

A few hikes around Yellowstone

Upon our first couple of rides into the Yellowstone Park, we were all set to get on some spectacular hiking trails.  Surprisingly there seemed to be few defined trails into the back country.  What we found were mostly sidewalks and board walks winding through the geothermal and water features.  A nice walk, but with hundreds of other visitors and kind of taking the excitement of isolation in the back country away.   When we did find a defined trail or two, they were marked with "Closed due to Bear Activity" signs.  We thought that it would be best to adhere to the recommendations.  We ended up finding several nice trails very near our campground, Yellowstone Valley Inn (YVI).

4 Bear Trail was within walking distance from the YVI where we had the RV parked.  We drove the truck over there just to avoid walking on the highway.  Gari checks the bulletin board for valuable information before we set off.

We dutifully signed the hikers log sheet, and noticed the couple that hiked there 7 days before us came within 5 feet of a Mountain Lion!  We carry a side arm and bear spray, but would prefer to never come close enough to consider using either.

Gari excited to set off down the trail.

The start of the hike was wide open, we like that so we can see all around us.

We got to cross a creek on a toothpick, there goes Steve across now.

Why do the predators have to leave body parts directly on the trail???

Trail marker.  When we saw this first one, we didn't notice that the 4 had come off, we thought maybe bear had been spotted there!  hahaha  You can see it says 4 Bear, but the 4 is barely visible.

The trail is taking us into the mountains there.

Gari checks our position on the GPS all the while has her bear spray at the ready.

Steve's packing.

Looking back toward the trail-head.  4 Bear was a very pleasant and scenic hike.

Clearwater Trail was a little farther from YVI.  We had heard of bear sightings in this area about a week before this hike.  Gari surveys the trail-head area below.

Steve is raring to go and leads the way out.

There will be wild flowers today.

The trail followed a river from above the dense vegetation around the river bed.  That is a big reason we selected this hike because it enableg us to see around ourselves.  Fewer hiding places for predators.

Wild Daises?

Gari gets a landscape shot.

Nice and open around the trail with lovely flowers.  It appears there has been a recent fire here.  Perhaps that is what encouraged the flowers.

Lots of pretty wild flowers.

An interesting vertical rock jutting up along the path.

Steve investigates.  Rock.  No new information.

Gari along the trail on the Clearwater hike.

Steve overlooks the river, which is getting very close to the trail.

Yep, we're in the river bottom now. Lots of vegetation down here.  We can't see a thing.  We decided not to enter the bushes and turned back here.

We like the scenery in the clear.

Purple flowers.

Jims Creek was the first hike back country we took during our YVI stay.  It was across the road from the RV park and a 3 mile head start drive up into the mountains there.  We observed a standard bulletin board and pit toilet at the trail-head.  Everything a hiker needs.

The view from the trail-head.

Steve pauses for the obligatory trail-head photo.  It was crisp that morning and it appears that Steve is packing again.

We noted the bear cautions on the bulletin board, then we see Grizzly tracks not 100 feet into the hike!  We stopped, looked, and decided that since this was our first hike after having difficulty finding an open trail, that we were going!  And we did.  In bear tracks you see the claws on Grizzlies only.  The Black Bear doesn't leave claw impressions because their claws are smaller.  The Grizzly Bear spends much of their life digging for food.

We are glad we went on, the scenery is spectacular up here!

There was still snow on the mountain tops in early June.

At the top of our hike Steve pauses to use the binoculars.

No caption necessary.

You can see the highway below.  YVI and our RV is down there in front of those spires.

Steve soaks in the view from the top of our hike.

We love the Wyoming mountains.

Gari shows her bear spray.  Don't mess with her bear!

It would be interesting to hike up in there, but not today.

We observed lots of Elk signs up there that day.  My boot is size 13 EE.

As far as the eye can see, or in this case the lens.

We passed a compound that was for sale at the time for a cool $1.4 Million.

On the drive back we stopped and captured this panorama including Pepé and YVI our campgound to the left and below.

Elk Fork was our last documented back country hike.  Steve pauses to review the trail-head bulletin board information.

Gari poses for the obligatory trail-head photo.

Elf Fork starts out very pretty.

The trail winds along the, you guessed it, Elk Fork River below.

Gari spots a Cow Moose in the brush below along the river.

Steve meets up with Secret Squirrel.

The moose ambles off into the brush.

Lots of Elk sign here too.  Elk Fork, check.

Wonderful wild flowers here today too.

Ahhhh yes.

Steve drops below the trail and gets a shot of Gari above.

Deer jaw... on the trail.

Interesting geology.

Gari stands in front of the rock crease.

We drift up above the trail and get a photo of a horse trail riding group as they pass below us.

Steve wants to drop down and touch the river... there he goes.

He thinks he can get there that way.  He keeps going.

Steve came back up quick, he says he saw another fresh carcass down there.  Not a good place to hang around, the owner may return.

Gari crosses one of many snow melt streams.

A section of trees and brush we had to go through.  We made it safely!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, but we are going to see the sights anyway.