Mary Mountain West trail at Yellowstone NP
This is a trail segment that I wanted to hike for a long time. The complete Mary Mountain trail is a 20 mile point to point trail and me hiking solo can’t do it without a shuttle and starting very early. I have hiked the East side a couple of times and this area was a mystery to me.
This segment is referred as the bison highway since bison use it a lot and people post videos of bison moving among the trees on the trail and pushing people out of the trail. Well, when I got to the trailhead I found this:
i was doing this hike a week after the sign was posted but still I had to be careful since I was the only person at the trailhead (what else is new ?). If this is the first blog you read from me, I need to remind you that I have run into plenty of bears. To me, the key is to know if you will do what needs to be done and I have done it, didn’t run, stood my ground, didn’t antagonize a bear. Many fatal encounters are just being at the wrong place at the wrong time and those can’t be predicted. If it happens, it happens.
The first part of the hike is a wide open area and you can see vehicle tracks, not sure what for. But at some point you will leave them and cross a bridge to go left.
After crossing the bridge you are walking along a nice creek. There is an area to the left with lots of boulders where pika will start yelling at you.
One of the residents of the boulders condo:
You leave the forested area by crossing a meadow and then more creeks …..
I hiked along a creek for a while, all alone. On the way back I ran into a single person on that creek. The colors were amazing:
I am always looking for tracks on the trail and at some point there was a bit of mud next to the creek and the looking paid off when I saw wolf tracks:
Now you leave the creek and you are in a whole new area with meadows and more creepy.
So you are switching between forest and open meadows. I think these images are from mile 6:
I was walking very slow to admire the colors and to be on the lookout for critters, I didn’t forget about the bear sign. And I was right to be on the lookout, a couple of minutes after this video I ran into fresh bear poop:
I mean, these colors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So at mile 6 I reached a large meadow that looks like it is pretty big on my topo map and I left the trail to explore it.
Then I reached a creek and was too lazy to put on the water shoes and cross it:
The trail was about to enter the forest and after seeing the bear poop I decided it was wise to stay on the open meadow and enjoy the view:
I walked for quite a bit there and the next time I hike this area I will continue on the trail and see what else I can see. I am not sure I can reach Mary Lake and turn around; that would mean starting the hike early and early means a higher probability of bears. On the topo map I see a cabin next to the lake so that would be nice to see.
It was time to turn around and come back to the creek and take a couple more pics, including the only bison I saw all day…..
Those two hills are close to the trailhead and there are quite a few thermals, but I didn’t explore them.
I loved hiking this area and it is definitely a candidate for a second and longer visit. The feeling of remoteness and solitude was great. Running into wolf tracks was great, I am getting very good at noticing tracks and it pays off. The forested areas were not that dense so I was always confident I would see any critters coming at me. The open meadows were great, worth exploring.
