Yellowstone River Picnic Area Trailhead:
Outstanding hike with wonderful views and good wildlife viewing opportunities.
Hiked on Sunday, July 20, 2014; review pending See this review on TripAdvisor or the hike details on EveryTrail.
The hike from the Yellowstone Picnic Area Trailhead was suggested by the Ranger at the Tower Ranger Station as one of three great short hikes nearby to Roosevelt Lodge (the other two were the hike along Hellroaring Creek trail down to the suspension bridge and the hike to Lost Lake from the petrified tree parking area). We did all three of these hikes in one day during our visit in July 2014. The hike from the Yellowstone Picnic Area trailhead was our final hike for the day; we saved it for later in the afternoon based on the Ranger’s suggestion.
We finally started thinking about our afternoon hike about 4:00. After overcoming the inertia of a relaxed afternoon we got on the road to the Yellowstone Picnic Area trailhead, arriving at 4:30. The place was packed with picnickers, but I was able to find a sliver of ground into which to wedge in our car. Turns out there are two routes to get on the trail, the one at the marked trailhead that makes a gradual assent to the ridge and what I’m guessing is more of a social trail that basically goes straight up the hillside to get to the ridgeline. We took the marked, more gradual trail.
This turned out to be a very nice little hike with views of the Lamar Valley and into Yellowstone River canyon. It is no wonder the Ranger said this was one of her favorites. And while the parking lot was packed, the trail was nearly deserted, as we only saw a few other hikers this afternoon. Shoot, we saw more big horn sheep than hikers once we were out on the trail.
After the initial climb up to the ridge, the trail is generally flat, that is there are no major elevation changes just a sort of rolling nature to the terrain. The views along the trail are tremendous in all directions. To the east are the far reaching vistas out toward the Lamar Valley which provide the look of the old west prairie. Directly adjacent to the trail are great views into the canyon and of the river plus close range views of the basalt columns (the trail actually walked runs just above the columns). Plus there were several glacier erratics strewn all around the meadow along the ridgeline.
There was one section that gave my wife pause just above the basalt columns. In this area, the trail sort of tips toward the edge and there is a lot of loose gravel. Couple these trail conditions with the high wind we were experiencing and it did make for a bad combination. For once I was not the squeamish one with the edge but this was not a shear drop so not a trigger to my irrational phobias. We made it past this short section with just a little angst.
We found the big horn sheep near where we expected them and just before the bend in the trail toward Specimen Ridge. There were several on the slope just below the trail, but close enough that we would have been well within 25 yards of them had we continued. So we opted to turn back rather than get too close to the sheep. It would have been nice to take in the view from the high point of the trail at the bend, but the critters come first.
We retraced our steps back to the trailhead, taking in the views going the opposite direction with slightly different lighting. We covered about 3.5 miles in about two hours, which made for a very nice way to spend the late afternoon.
The hike from the Yellowstone Picnic Area Trailhead was suggested by the Ranger at the Tower Ranger Station as one of three great short hikes nearby to Roosevelt Lodge (the other two were the hike along Hellroaring Creek trail down to the suspension bridge and the hike to Lost Lake from the petrified tree parking area). We did all three of these hikes in one day during our visit in July 2014. The hike from the Yellowstone Picnic Area trailhead was our final hike for the day; we saved it for later in the afternoon based on the Ranger’s suggestion.
We finally started thinking about our afternoon hike about 4:00. After overcoming the inertia of a relaxed afternoon we got on the road to the Yellowstone Picnic Area trailhead, arriving at 4:30. The place was packed with picnickers, but I was able to find a sliver of ground into which to wedge in our car. Turns out there are two routes to get on the trail, the one at the marked trailhead that makes a gradual assent to the ridge and what I’m guessing is more of a social trail that basically goes straight up the hillside to get to the ridgeline. We took the marked, more gradual trail.
This turned out to be a very nice little hike with views of the Lamar Valley and into Yellowstone River canyon. It is no wonder the Ranger said this was one of her favorites. And while the parking lot was packed, the trail was nearly deserted, as we only saw a few other hikers this afternoon. Shoot, we saw more big horn sheep than hikers once we were out on the trail.
After the initial climb up to the ridge, the trail is generally flat, that is there are no major elevation changes just a sort of rolling nature to the terrain. The views along the trail are tremendous in all directions. To the east are the far reaching vistas out toward the Lamar Valley which provide the look of the old west prairie. Directly adjacent to the trail are great views into the canyon and of the river plus close range views of the basalt columns (the trail actually walked runs just above the columns). Plus there were several glacier erratics strewn all around the meadow along the ridgeline.
There was one section that gave my wife pause just above the basalt columns. In this area, the trail sort of tips toward the edge and there is a lot of loose gravel. Couple these trail conditions with the high wind we were experiencing and it did make for a bad combination. For once I was not the squeamish one with the edge but this was not a shear drop so not a trigger to my irrational phobias. We made it past this short section with just a little angst.
We found the big horn sheep near where we expected them and just before the bend in the trail toward Specimen Ridge. There were several on the slope just below the trail, but close enough that we would have been well within 25 yards of them had we continued. So we opted to turn back rather than get too close to the sheep. It would have been nice to take in the view from the high point of the trail at the bend, but the critters come first.
We retraced our steps back to the trailhead, taking in the views going the opposite direction with slightly different lighting. We covered about 3.5 miles in about two hours, which made for a very nice way to spend the late afternoon.