Our mid-August Southwest Yellowstone Bechler Waterfall Wonderland trek, with five guests plus guide Jesse Ford, was yet another great walk through the pristine wilds of the world’s first national park. Yellowstone backpacking is always great! For the record, the 1.5-hour drive from Bozeman to the trail-head was in a torrential downpour that stopped right as the group began to hike. Thereafter, there was not a drop of rain for the rest of the week!
This great trek begins in typical Yellowstone lodge pole pine forest and visits Shoshone Lake and Geyser Basin, winds up over some high plateau country, drops into the magnificent and lush Bechler River Canyon and ends up in and just beyond the spectacular Bechler Meadows. The variety of terrain on this beautiful walk is astounding!
Among other highlights, a young fellow who was on the trek with his parents, came eyeball to eyeball with a large bull moose while filling his water bottle! The moose survived. A great late summer swim in Shoshone Lake complimented a wonderful walk through Shoshone Geyser Basin, which the group had to itself, except for two sand hill cranes feeding in the adjacent meadow. Waterfalls galore graced the Bechler Canyon, and of course, a visit to “Mr. Bubbles” provided one of the great backcountry hot pool soaks in the world! There was also great berry picking in the lower part of the canyon — mainly huckleberries, thimbleberries, raspberries and serviceberries — and a couple of moderately challenging fords of the Bechler River. The big meadows provided a view of the “back-side” of the Tetons, which Big Wild co-owner Howie Wolke (yours truly) helped to protect as designated Wilderness back in the 1980’s. And last but not least, the group came upon a father and son, discovering that Dad had just broken his right humerus while scrambling off trail up through a steep talus slope. There was no extra charge for our group watching Jesse and two physicians who were on the trip splint an immobilize the broken limb and then send Dad and his son on their way.
