Hey Everyone,
We've had a trip to the Bechler region on our to-do list for a long time, but the best time to go is during Corrie's work crunch time. With the spectacular late-season weather that we've had this year, we were able to sneak in an overnight trip to Union Falls and a two-night trip into Bechler Canyon.
To start, we drove out to the Grassy Lake Reservoir Trailhead. The final drive down to the parking lot is steep and rutted. If you don't have an off-road vehicle, it's probably best to walk it first to see if your car can make it. After a short distance from the parking lot, we were greeted by a Yellowstone boundary sign.
After a mile, we arrived at the Falls River crossing. It's wide and cold. I think crossing this early in the season would be fairly challenging, you definitely want to make sure you have some trekking poles.
Once on the other side of the river, the trail is mostly nondescript and through the trees. There are a few points along the way that open up, but the views in the distance are of more trees.
While this trail may be a destination hike, the final destination is ABSOLUTELY worth the 15+ miles roundtrip. We arrived at the overlook in the afternoon as planned. The light at our back created a nice little rainbow in the spray of the falls.
I noticed that there was a small trail down to the base of the falls. After getting fairly wet from the spray on the hike down, I was able to find a dry spot where I could take a photo.
We hiked back to the junction and took the trail up to Scout Pool. It's not a hot spring, but the water has some thermal influence so it's probably in the 70s. It was a great spot to jump in and wash off the sweat from the day's hike before heading back to camp and hitting the sack.
The following morning our plan was to hike back to the trailhead, then take Grassy Lake Road west until we could hook up with Cave Falls Road and take that into Bechler. We certainly missed the peak of the fall color, but there were still some occasional pockets of color. The other thing we noticed is how incredibly clear the water is. When the sun is overhead and you look with polarized lenses, you can see right through the water like it's barely there.
The hike back out was uneventful, although there's a fairly steady climb out from the campsite on the way out.
Back at the trailhead, we jumped in the car and headed over towards Bechler. It's about 2.5 hours of driving on the dirt road. In some places you need to go very slowly due to the condition of the road. We arrived to the area late afternoon, set up camp, and then drove out to Cave Falls. It's not a huge drop, but it's a wide falls with a decent amount of water, even this late in the year.
The following morning we set off from the Bechler Ranger Station to spend two nights in Bechler Canyon. As with Union Falls, the trail starts off in the trees, but eventually it opens up when you arrive to Bechler Meadows. After crossing the suspension footbridge, it's about three miles to cross the entire meadow.
At the mouth of Bechler Canyon, the vegetation completely changes. It turns into Fern Gully with giant spruce trees and ferns everywhere.
Once in the canyon, you gradually start to climb as you make your way up to Three Rivers Junction. Along the way you hike by another couple beautiful waterfalls. The first, Colonnade Falls, is a two-in-one.
Shortly after Colonnade Falls, you arrive at Iris Falls. There was so much spray coming off this falls, that when I took a photo of it I was almost able to see a full 360º rainbow.
We arrived late afternoon and called it an early night after the big hike in. The following morning, we made breakfast and got an early start on the short hike up to Mr. Bubbles. With the cooler air temps in the morning, we were able to see all the thermal features near the Bechler River that we didn't notice the day before.
The trail through the canyon takes you near some beautiful thermal features. I tried to find the names of features on a map, but I'm not sure if there are official names or not.
As we arrived at Ferris Fork junction, we started seeing signs of more thermal influence in the water.
Once we passed Ragged Falls, we arrived at the spur trail out to our destination.
Hiking in we could see a thermal feature dumping into the river. Upon closer look, there was a boiling hot spring and travertine feature.
At the end of the trail, roughly 16 miles from our starting point, we arrived at our destination. We have plenty of friends that suggested we hike out here, but we didn't really get what all the fuss was about. Now that we were here with the place to ourselves, we could see the allure.
It wasn't until we jumped in that we "got it." The area where you soak, aptly named Mr. Bubbles, is a mixture of hot water from a nearby spring and the cold water from the Ferris Fork. Depending on where you sit in the feature, you can "adjust" the temperature to your liking. During the 2.5 hours we soaked, we couldn't believe we had the place to ourselves. We kept saying that someone was going to show up eventually, but it never happened.
Back at camp, we ate lunch and then took naps in the sun. I went back out to take photos during the sunset before happy hour and dinner.
The weather was clear and we were close to a new moon, so I decided to head out to try and get some photos of the night sky. I scouted a place during my sunset stroll so I knew where I wanted to shoot, but unfortunately I didn't have a tripod. So after creating a janky way to hold my camera with my trekking poles and pack, I was able to capture a keeper.
The next morning we had a long hike and drive ahead of us, so we started early. Even though we were back tracking, it was nice to get to see the same spots in different lighting.
Especially the waterfalls... They were in the shade this time around so I was able to do some longer exposure shots of the cascades and falls.
Back in the meadow, there was some haze in the distance that prevented us from seeing the Tetons with too much definition.
We could even smell the smoke in the air a little bit. We made it back to the trailhead in the early afternoon, tired, but recharged from a spectacular trip in a new part of the park for us.
Trip details: In total we hiked just shy of 50 miles. The roundtrip out to Union Falls and Scout pool is about 17 miles with ~2,000 feet of elevation, and roundtrip out to Mr. Bubbles is about 32 miles and ~1,900 feet of elevation. It seems like the window for this trip is between late-August and when the snow flies. I'd love to hit this in peak fall color, but it seems that we were just on the back end of it, especially with the big winds that were in the area the week before.