Yellowstone: Mary Mountain Trail
Hey everyone,
This summer has been busy, but the rain is finally here, which means it’s time to catch up on some writing.
The Central Plateau is one of those parts of Yellowstone that feels especially wild and remote. Stretching across the high country between the park’s major developed areas, it’s a vast landscape of lodgepole forests, open meadows, lakes, thermal features, and some of the park’s most important wildlife habitat. There’s only one trail, and even fewer people, which makes it a pretty special place to explore on foot.
We’ve had some friends do this trip over the years, and it’s been on our list for a long time. It’s a long haul, and we aren’t getting any younger, so we finally decided to make it happen.
Our plan was to start on the west side at the Nez Perce Trailhead and pop out in Hayden Valley at the Mary Mountain Trailhead. We’d spend the night about halfway in at the 12-mile mark. On the second day, we planned to leave the trail and cut across Hayden Valley toward Violet Creek Hot Springs, where a friend had found a mountain lion skull the year before. He gave us a description of where he’d found it, so our goal was to see if we could locate it again. Worst case, he said, the thermal basin was pretty cool to explore.
The only hiccup was that both days were about 12 miles, so we couldn’t spend too much time wandering around.
The day before we started, we shuttled a car to Hayden Valley and dropped Toklat off with the neighbors. The next morning, we made the drive down to the trailhead and started hiking along Nez Perce Creek.
The trail was wide, an old road, all the way to the footbridge. The bridge had definitely seen better days, but we were able to get across without any trouble.
From there, the views opened up into beautiful meadows, with the trail weaving in and out of the trees and following the meandering creek.
We thought we’d see more wildlife, but the first sign of anything was a winter-killed bison carcass that looked like a bear had been feeding on it for quite a while.
Not long after, we came across our first live animal: a GIANT bull bison wallowing in the dirt, completely unconcerned with our presence.
From there, the trail started climbing through the lodgepole forest toward the Central Plateau. Eventually we reached Mary Lake, our planned overnight stop.
I jumped in the lake to cool off, and we hung out on the shore with cocktails toasting the first day of summer, watching birds fly around. After dinner, we went back out to the lake to watch the evening light. The wind had died down, making for some beautiful reflections on the water. Unfortunately, that also meant the bugs came out, so we had to keep moving.
On the far side of the lake, we started seeing lots of tracks, including wolf tracks. Mary Lake is pretty much the only water around for quite a while, so it made sense that wildlife would be using it as a gathering spot.
That night, I woke up to use the facil-i-trees and noticed the Milky Way peeking out between the clouds. The clouds continued to build throughout the night, so sunrise was a little cloudy, but still beautiful. The forecast called for rain, so we wanted to get an early start.
The trail leaving Mary Lake was basically a bison highway.
After getting home and talking with some bison biologists, we learned that what we had been walking on was actually a historic bison migration route—one that bison have likely been using for thousands and thousands of years. Eventually, humans started using the same route to follow the bison.
After a while, the trail reached Highland Hot Springs, and then seemed to spider out in all directions as we crossed the plateau.
We were able to pick the trail back up as it began dropping off the plateau and descending toward Hayden Valley.
At the edge of the forest, the views opened up dramatically. The valley stretched out below us, with the Absarokas visible in the distance. We followed the trail for a little while longer before deciding to bail and beeline it toward the hot springs.
We stopped for our first break of the day at a high point and soaked in the views.
When we started hiking again, we came across our first group of bull bison. We had to make our way around them, giving them plenty of space.
As we climbed up and down the rolling landscape, surrounded by wildflowers, we could see the steaming thermal basin in the distance.
Then we heard the Wapiti wolf pack howling about 200 yards away. We tried to see if we could spot them, but they stayed hidden. So we just stood there and listened for about a minute before continuing on.
Eventually, we reached the edge of the thermal basin and started picking our way around to the north side, where we hoped to find the lion skull.
After about 30 minutes of searching with no luck, Corrie yelled, “I think I see it!” We made our way over to where she was looking and, sure enough, there it was. The skull was still attached to the spine, with the rest of the bones scattered across the ground. Exactly what we had been looking for.
From there, we continued around the thermal basin and started following Violet Creek.
We had heard that the creek was thermally influenced, but at the first crossing the water was surprisingly cold. It wasn’t until we made it farther downstream that the temperature started to rise as hot spring water dumped into the creek. The warm water also created the perfect environment for some beautiful red thermophiles growing along the creek.
As we continued downstream, we were aiming for the confluence with Alum Creek, but when we got close we ran into a massive nursery herd. We made our way off-trail to give them plenty of room and eventually worked our way back onto the trail.
We also came across this masked shrew that had died on the trail. Not sure what happened, but first time seeing this animal.
The rain came and went for the rest of the hike—not quite bad enough to put on rain gear, but enough to keep the clouds around and the hiking temperatures comfortable.
As we got closer to the car, the sun finally came out and dried us off just enough before we reached the trailhead.
Trip Details:
It was a spectacular trip. In two days and roughly 24 miles, we didn’t see a single other person.
Just wildlife, thermal features, wildflowers, big skies, and a whole lot of Yellowstone backcountry.
Another great adventure in the world’s first national park!
I hope you’re all doing well!
-Jake
