hiking the Lamar River trail in Yellowstone
Finally, the legendary Lamar Valley …………………..
This was my first hike from my motel in Gardiner, I think it takes about an hour to get there. At 8am I was arriving in the area and at the Lamar Ranger Station and that buffalo ranch thing the cars were already taking up all the spaces for people with scopes pointed to the Lamar Valley: prime wolf viewing in Yellowstone. The people, the companies, everywhere I had to slow down and the wolves were not out yet (I know, more on that later).
The trail crosses Soda Butte Creek on a bridge, hugs the southeast part of Lamar Valley and then leaves it and follows the Lamar River until you decide to turnaround.
I realized that I didn’t take pics of videos on this hike, so lots of talking in this post.
So it was pretty chilly at the start of the hike. I went over the Soda Butte bridge and I immediately started focusing my binoculars on Lamar Valley, these people were looking at something and I wanted to know what. For that reason, the hike was pretty slow at that time.
At a certain point the trail looses sight of Lamar Valley over a hill and I decided to stay and scan the area because I started hearing wolves howling and this time I was sticking around and see if they were coming out of the forest.
So at that corner I started to scan the area, saw a few bison in group and then a lone one and I told myself “that guy better be a big boy to be alone” and then to its left I saw something moving away from it and to my left: a wolf !!! I scanned where he was going and I notice two quick things moving into a depression that hid them from me. I went back to the wolf and he was definitely moving in that direction. Then to its right, another wolf going in the same direction. I was now tracking two wolves going to a “meeting” place ? Mind you, in my binoculars they looked like ants, but the excitement was real. So the two wolves entered that depression and then I decided I was not going anywhere until someone either left the area or more of them arrived ……………… oh boy: all of a sudden I see this weird orange colored drone flying over the depression area, WTF !!!!! It took my brain a few seconds to realize that was NOT a drone but an actual plane and it was doing circles on top on the depression area. Lots of circles, I had no clue what was going on (spoilers: I found what the next day). After a few minutes the plane leaves the area and then I give up on the wolves.
Fast forward the next day I was hiking at Pelican Valley: I run into a couple and I tell them about my 20 yard bear and they tell me the day before they were watching wolves eating a carcass in …………………. HAYDEN VALLEY. Now it all makes sense: the wolves woke up and started calling each other to go back to a previous kill, that is the end of the procession I was watching; I caught the last four wolves arriving. The kill was in the depression and the park plane arrives as part of normal tracking (probably they knew about the kill) to fly over the kill and get readings on the wolves’ collars. I know, lots of people used the long scopes and saw the wolves and the eating part in great details, but what I wanted was to see things while I hike, not from a spot on the road. I know, I am a snob, but wildlife from a car or a stop in the road is not real to me.
So then on I kept hiking, keeping an eye to my left; there were some hills where I noticed antelopes and something weird, where at the top of the hill I could see two separate sets of antlers. Someone died and was eaten there.
You finally arrive at Cache and cross it, you either decide to get your feet wet or find a path of rocks that you can jump from one to other. From then on, you are hiking going up and down, with the Lamar River to your right. But you are at elevation so you are not next to it. There is a campground “exit” that will take you to the shore of the river. So even though you see on the topo map that you are close to the river, the elevation lines will show you are on top of it. sometimes close, sometimes you see a clearing and just hike to it to overlook the river.
At some point I decided to turn around, I was I think 2 or 3 miles from Miller Creek. The only people that I ran into the segment past Cache Creek were backpackers.
Again, got to the creek, used the rocks to not get wet and back to the trail. At some point, I notice a couple on top of the trail, like 50 yards from me looking at something. They don’t say anything or signal (I hate that, plenty of times I am on the trail looking at wildlife and I don’t wait for people to reach me to tell them what I am seeing, I just point with my arms so they can start exploring; who know if the animal will be gone by the time they get to me. Anyway, they come down and tell me they say a mountain lion running away. That would have been cool to watch.
At that point I was going to slow down and try to scan the area for more wildlife. I saw a group of Antelope that didn’t mind human presence so I spent time watching them with the binoculars. As I was doing that, I noticed movement low in the ground and I managed to see a badger. That is the first time I ever saw one. A guy with a large zoom lens came by and I alerted him, so he went to town taking pics of the badger.
Further on, there was a herd of bison and there was a social trail going up a hill that would take me close to them. I started going up and halfway I realized that I would be on top of them at the end of the hill and that would probably spook them, so I sat down halfway and used the binoculars to watch them. Never spook the wildlife for a pic !!
The day ended, on the return the road was empty of watchers so whatever fun was taking place early in the day was over. As part of YouTube watching I found the channel of Stan Mills and he mapped a route that would take me to Lamar Valley by hiking off trail in the hills next to it. That is what I plan to do next year.