A little over a week ago the wife and I planned to vacation in SC and NC. I had no fishing planned but wanted to dust off my hiking shoes in the Smokies. The effects of hurricane Joaquin left us scrambling for another plan. On Thursday night we called up some friends in Livingston, MT and after hurriedly calculating we decided to go to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park.
I didn't plan on a ton of fishing but I got out for a few hours. There was a ton of good looking water in the park including Soda Butte and Slough Creek, the Yellowstone, Madison, Gallatin, Firehole, Lamar, and Gardiner Rivers. I spent my time fishing in the Lamar Basin.
It didn't take long for me to tie into a little Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout! A little ways upstream from here I crossed a footbridge with a half dozen big cutties under it. I tied into another nice one upstream but he got off before I could grab him. I would've been able to get him but I left the net in the car because it had Burdock burrs all over it and I didn't want to introduce any non native plants to the park.
After a few more little ones I tied into this guy. After a good fight I beached him, snapped a pic, and let him swim.
This decent Cutty took the pink squirrel of prey fished deep. He was the big fish of the day! I decided to fish the Squirrel because I figured these fish have probably seen it all (except the Squirrel). I fished alone most of the time but I wasn't too far from the road, carried bear spray, and stayed in the open valley.
After catching around a dozen fish in a few hours we headed off to find some animals!
We saw a ton of Elk and Buffalo. After a while we got sick of seeing cow Elk but we did spot a number of nice bulls. We could hear this guy bugling as he walked through a field near the northern entrance of the park.
After driving around for a bit we began to spot some bears! This brute fed on an elk carcass as we watched from a distance. He would sleep for a while, wake up for a few bites, and fall back asleep. I was hoping another bear would come and we'd witness a battle of bears but it didn't happen.
In another area of the park we spotted a big 'ol silver backed beast.
This guy was just above the road. He lounged around for a bit before ambling off into the woods. After looking at him for a bit we moved on.
This black bear and it's cub emerged from a culvert under the road and took off into the woods before I could get a good shot. We spotted four bears on this trip. Two big grizzlies and the black bear with it's cub.
Driving into the Tetons we spotted this big bull moose from the road. We watched him for a while before making our way to Jackson, WY for lunch.
We walked up to Taggert Lake in the Tetons and spotted this goofy looking little moose on the trail. After looking around a little we found the mamma and daddy moose in the brush. I couldn't get a good picture and didn't want to risk getting gored by the pappa so we let 'em be. We saw these four moose in the Tetons and another two while driving with our friends near Livingston.
The scenery on this trip was unbeatable. We liked Yellowstone but the Tetons are right up there with the mountains of Glacier National Park for sheer majesty.
These houses and barns are found in the park in a section called Mormon Row. This settlement marked a transition from the valley's "wild west" days to more family settlement.
The picture on the left shows a thermal feature in Yellowstone. The pick on the right shows the shore of Lava Lake in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness outside of Bozeman, MT.
Some of these spots probably have awesome fishing if you're willing to put in the time and energy to get to them! I stayed near the road for the sake of time but in the future I'd love to hike into some back-country areas to fish in Yellowstone.
It's amazing to see thermals pouring hot water into freezing cold trout streams. The stream pictured is the Firehole River.
Of course we checked out Old Faithful and all the other thermals. Many of them were obscured by steam as the air temps hovered in the 50's for much of the time. We also made the short hike to a number of picturesque waterfalls.
After three days in Yellowstone and one in the Tetons we headed back to Livingston for the night before making the 16 hour drive home yesterday! Can't wait to do it again...or move back;)
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