Yellowstone Spring Backpacking Trip May 2008

Friday, May 9, 2008, the landscape still draped in winter, temperatures in the 30s, windy with snowflakes the size of downy feathers. East of Tower Junction we set out for three nights, four days, traversing the Hellroaring Creek Trail, camping at two sites along the creek, then traveling north along the Yellowstone River Trail, finally through the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone, up and over several rises, some very rocky, one very slippery and muddy mile-long exposed edge of the canyon, entering Gardiner on Monday, May 12. Wildlife sightings and sounds were in abundance, including: elk, mule deer, bison - many with new-born calves, pronghorn, black bear, grizzly (along the road before starting off), a yearling wolf, marmots, bald eagles, flocks of mountain bluebirds, killdeer, magpies, ravens, robins, Canada Geese, sandhill cranes, kestrels, red-tail hawks, falcons, ospreys nesting, and in the mud and snow, stories created in the multitude of tracks of bear, wolf, cougar, martin, elk, bison, deer.