Yellowstone Trip Report
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Earlier this summer I mentioned to my dad that I had a really bad case of fish fever and was day dreaming about a trip to Yellowstone. Somewhat to my surprise, my dad jumped right on board and we decided to turn my daydream into a reality. We settled on the second to last week of August, since it was the only time we could squeeze a week in between work, school, weddings, and all the commitments of summer. So here it is, although a few weeks overdue, a report of our trip:
We started our journey in Michigan, and after over 1500 miles of driving we arrived at the beautiful scenery of the Clark’s Fork River valley as we wound our way to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
We headed into the park and began our search for an open campsite. We ended up getting the last spot open in Tower Falls campground, where we stayed for the duration of our stay in the park. We did, however, switch sites after that first night because there was a reason that the site next to the outhouse was the last site open. We ran into some of the locals on our way into the park.
We decided to spend our first day on Slough Creek, so we awoke early to begin the hike in. The first mile of this hike is pretty steep, but it’s smooth sailing after that. The first meadow in gorgeous, and although we could see plenty of cutthroats cruising through the crystal clear water we decided to make the additional jaunt to the second meadow.
First meadow of Slough Creek:
Second meadow:
Some of it’s residents:
My dad walking the banks:
We had a great day fishing Slough Creek, and it was definitely some of our favorite water. We were both surprised at how feisty the cutthroats were. Even the smaller fish fought much harder than their size suggested. We returned to our campsite that night tired, sore, blistered, and ready for some sleep. The 12+ miles of hiking wore a little more on us than we expected, so we took a break from any serious hiking the next day and fished the Lamar River in a couple of different locations. We started fishing where the river begins to leave the large meadow section and enter the canyon upstream of the bridge. We fished into the beginning of the canyon and probed the water through this boulder strewn stretch of river. We met plenty of willing fish and had a great morning. We then moved to the stretch of water immediately upstream of the bridge, and became acquainted with the resident cutthroats, cuttbows, and rainbows.
One of the victims. I promise I was WAY happier than I look:
My dad sticking it out through a short storm:
One of the resident cutthroats:
We toured around the park for a while that night before settling in to get some rest.
We spent our third day hiking into Hellroaring Creek. It was a beautiful hike and the scenery did not disappoint. The fishing wasn’t great and the abundant 10″ cutthroats that the creek supposedly averaged turned out to be more like sporadic 4-8″ cutthroats. We hiked all the way to the confluence with the Yellowstone River in Black Canyon, which was well worth the effort. There were plenty of fish in this section of river, but they were very spooky and their rises were extremely tentative. Nonetheless, it was a great day in a gorgeous area of the park.
Crossing the bridge over the Yellowstone on the hike in:
This bridge is a pretty spectacular structure in the middle of the wilderness.
The Yellowstone River:
My dad searching for fish on Hellroaring Creek:
Hellroaring Creek:
The scenery in the northeast area of Yellowstone Park is hard to beat:
Even though the fishing wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, I would definitely make a return trip to Hellroaring Creek. The scenery is reason enough to make the hike, and probing the creek with a 2 or 3 weight rod would make for a fun day.
We left the park that night and settled into a National Forest Campground located a short distance outside of the east entrance of the park, right on the banks of the North Fork of the Shoshone River. We got a good night’s rest and gave the Shoshone a shot the following day. The local fly shop had raved about the fishing so the bar was set high. Unfortunately the fishing didn’t quite live up to expectations. We stuck a fair amount of fish, but went fishless through many stretches of river that screamed “trophy water.” We also didn’t have much luck with the hopper fishing that was reportedly outstanding. We stuck the vast majority of our fish while fishing deep nymph rigs. Nonetheless it was fun water to fish, the fish were incredibly feisty, and we had another two great days of vacation spent fishing the Shoshone.
There was a huge forest fire burning in that area while we were out there, which was ever-so-obvious one night as we drove to the nearest gas station to refill our cooler with ice. It was amazing how fast the fire moved and how much it had grown during the day. That morning we had gotten licenses from the very same gas station with no signs of the fire to be seen. By that night, the situation was quite the opposite:
All in all, it was an outstanding trip with some great fishing. All I could think about in the days and weeks leading up to the trip was all the fish I was going to catch. It’s pretty funny looking back because in hindsight the highlights of the trip are the time spent with my dad, gorgeous scenery, hiking, and all-around adventure. The fishing wasn’t bad either though. 😉
-Tim
Nice stuff……..thanks to the snow last week and a bunch of rain this weekend, the fire is pretty much out.
Great report and pictures to boot. Sounds like hellroaring was a blast even though the fish were small…….it’s not all about fish size. Thanks.
Great report Tim, I haven’t been in that part of the park either and it’s interesting how different it looks from the southern, central and western parts. cheers, g2
Great report! Great pics! the scenery looks fantastic! Really makes me realize I need to spend a couple more days a year in the park! Slough Creek looked fantastic!
Thanks for all the positive comments guys. It was a great trip…I’m already day dreaming about (hopefully) returning next summer. 🙂
-Tim
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