Rescue Creek Hike

This hike ends about 8 miles away at Undine Waterfall that you can reach by car if you go further in the park (see Undine and Wraith Falls blog). Last year we went in about 1 mile and then diverted ourselves off the trail and over to the Yellowstone River that runs below our cabins which sit on the other side on the cliff. This time, Bob and I decided to climb up to see if we could see over the top down to the Falls. We had no intention of hiking the 8 miles in and back though.


We took this hike after 2 good days of rain and as you can see by the pictures, there were still grey skies, but it was a bit warmer and overall a pleasant hiking day. The downside was the water runoff which we had to slog through in several places. Having made it across several wet areas, we began a good ascent up the Turkey Pen Peak.








I was able to walk 3 miles in on the trail and make 1,000 feet of the 1,400 foot climb before we called it done.

Here are our cabins on the Overlook. We can see where we were climbing this day up to the peak from up there.





Before we started the climb we explored the creek bed below the path. As we were preparing to leave last year, a bull elk walked down to the tree line toward the river and laid down and died. No animals found it before we left for the drive back to Florida so we wanted to see up close what was left of this beautiful, big animal.









All we found were bones around the area and some still had quite a bit of fur attached. We could have reconstructed the body but, oooo, no! The top picture is the skull with teeth and fur. The rib cage is to the left. Some bear and wolves got a feast for the tough winter we heard later.



 Here is a shot of Gardiner from the trail.










 
This 2nd picture is our cabins from further up with a little bit of Gardiner showing in the valley.










We wanted to show even this far up, how green the grasses were. This trail has a deep drop off for water runoff and it was plush with all sorts of vegetation, all the way down.

2014

As we were finishing the hike, Bob took this picture of the bridge that you cross to get back to the car from Rattlesnake Butte. This trailhead is only about 1 mile in from the north Yellowstone gate. The river is the Gardiner River that later flows into the Yellowstone River in Gardiner. The water was still raging from the rains.

2013

This shot is almost identical but it was taken last year. The water is much calmer and the river level is down about 1 foot or more. We've talked with the Rangers and 'locals' several times and everyone agrees that even the Lake Yellowstone is 1.5 feet higher than the last 3 years. It's been a banner year for rain and the animals are getting fatter by the day on all the extra vegetation.

Total Miles Hiked: 66