hiking in the less know Pelican Valley in Yellowstone
Pelican Valley is not that well known and on top of that it has hiking restrictions because this is a bear management area. You can only hike in the area between 9am and 7pm during certain times of the year. Also, you are recommended to hike in groups …. obviously, I hiked it alone. As you can imagine, I was super alert. I arrived at the trailhead and saw a couple of cars, not sure if they were backpackers, but while I was changing I saw people at the trailhead going in.
The first part of the hike is thru a forest and that was spooky, I was making noise and super alert, going super slow. I was really scared of what was hidden there.
Well, the forest ends and then you start getting views of the valley, You can see the forest in the pic below.
There is also a restriction to stay on the trail for the first two miles. I couldn’t see why, but I did see a what it looked like a dormant thermal area close to the trail, so I am guessing that was the reason.
The trail eventually does an L turn and now it is running parallel to the valley below. I saw some people staying put too long at an elevated area so I knew something was up (I already was seen bison); just before I got to them I found the bear that was down in the valley, about less than 1/2 a mile from us. It was moving away from the trail, so there was no concern. I followed the bear with the binoculars for a few minutes, it was a black bear in the valley, but on the other side of Pelican Creek.
This is what the trail looks like, it hugs the hill that is forested to the right, so just like Hayden Valley you are not hiking in the middle of it.
There were bison all over the place. My original plan was to do a loop, but when I got to the Pelican Creek, it was not a small creek and there were bison on the other side so I would have to find other place to cross. I did not want to get my feet wet so I just kept on the trail to the right of the creek. Next time I will cross it since it will take me inside the valley. Mind you, the topo map mentions a footbridge; well that footbridge was 50 years old and the only thing less was a span in the middle of the creek.
You can see parts of the creek in the video below.
So I reached this area where I was overlooking a couple of bison trying to cross another creek. I wanted to get pics of them crossing the creek, but the lazy bastards took their sweet time. The one you see below did not move from that position for the 15 minutes I was there waiting.
The valley is immense, I was very careful using the binoculars scanning the forest to my right and the valley to my left. I was at that point the only person on the trail. I was the ONLY person on that trail the whole day. Every person I ran into was between the trailhead and the creek bridge and I was way past that area. That was becoming a pattern on these hikes in Yellowstone, if people decide to get in the trails, they will do for just a couple of miles. I don’t get the impression that Yellowstone is a hikers park (although it is full of hiking trails), maybe because most visitors are regular tourists, or maybe all these warnings about bears spook them ……………. or maybe because you can see a lot of wildlife from the road.
I love the movement of the creek and the bison dotting the landscape.
At some point I decided to turn around, I went a bit past that marked tree in the video below. I didn’t realize that I was getting close to the Pelican Springs cabin, oh well.
I took my time on the return to the trailhead, it was so peaceful and beautiful. At some point a big bison was moving towards the trail and I had to get out of the way while figuring out where he was going so I didn’t end up at the same place. After I passed him, he gave me the stink eye.
The creeks (looks like creeks) zig zags all over the place, which I love to examine with my binoculars. You have to take something with you to zoom in these large valley.
Something nice happened two miles from the trailhead. After sitting on an elevated point for a few minutes watching a bald eagle flying around I ran into this woman. She asked about wildlife and we started talking. She works with Xanterra and takes her time off to find a spot in the park and have dinner watching the valleys. So we start talking about the wildlife and not being afraid of it. She mentioned an idiot that came without a facemask to the gift shop (idiot!!!!). She is now moving to Xanterra in Death Valley for the next six months, quite a change of scenery.
We ended up talking for 90 minutes and then we started hiking back to the trailhead. Very nice lady. Very nice day of hiking.