3 day trips in Tetons, Yellowstone, Sawtooth and Yosemite

Seems to me you could fill up your whole 3 weeks just in the Greater Yellowstone area. I might start with that and then consider whether you want to go on side trips to the Sawtooths or the Frank Church.

I'd budget some time for wildlife watching and site seeing in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I always tell people to bring a hunting style spotting scope for car camping there.

One idea might be to paddle part of the Snake River. Relatively easy paddling with great views of the Tetons. You can rent packrafts or kayaks in Jackson. Just be aware early in the year the current can be strong and their are lots of strainers and sweepers in the river. Due to camping restrictions this would be a day trip however.

If you want fishing and seclusion I might look into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. I have only day hiked it but it is amazing country with lots of lakes. There are guidebooks about the area you could check out. Planning a three day hike there should be easy.

For fishing – Slough Creek in Yellowstone NP anytime after July 4. Beautiful country, one of the world's great cutthroat fisheries. Easy hiking but very popular, so put in for a campsite early.

Beartooth Plateau, in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness north of Yellowstone. Great scenery and great fishing.

If you're here in late June or early July, Black Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone NP. Gives up snow early, good fishing, and great fishing if you hit the salmon fly hatch.

Teton Crest Trail from top of Teton Village tram to Jenny Lake. Less than 30 miles total if at the end you catch boat ride across Jenny Lake to parking lot.

Doable in one long day for the ambitious, but 3 or 4 days make an easy trip.

To start, leave car at Jenny Lake, take taxi/shuttle to tram at Teton Village.

From top of tram at Teton Village, hike to Mary's Lake, then north to Death Canyon Shelf, cross several passes to South Fork of Cascade Canyon, then north thru that canyon to exit at Jenny Lake.

For bit longer hike (add'l 10 miles or so, total about 40 miles, adding day or two), skip exit at Jenny Lake & continue north over Paintbrush Divide to Leigh Lake. For this trip, leave car at Leigh Lake TH instead of Jenny Lake.

Google "Teton crest trail" for lots of descriptions — here's one:

http://thebigoutside.com/american-classic-the-teton-crest-trail/

For fishing, Madison Campground in YNP — fish Firehole & Madison rivers.

For fewer crowds, great alpine scenery, and fishing — Wind River Range.

With three weeks, just do all three — Teton Crest Trail, YNP, and Winds.

Yosemite? Started at a trail head at Yosemite forty years ago & it was like the Boston Marathon must be — a really huge crowd. Never returned there.

How to avoid crowds in Yosemite: use a protractor to draw a circle about ten miles in diameter centered on half dome. Go somewhere else.

Actually, if you get to Happy Isles around seven am, hardly anyone will be hiking. Tourists seem to take 3-4 hours to rise, breakfast, get ready, and hike. It's also better timing if you are heat sensitive as open granite at 1 pm is mercilessly hot.

I recommend starting at May Lake, visiting Hoffman (the geographical center of the park) and doing a loop back to Tuolumne Meadows.

You're already missing early June's window for reserving a,permit, btw. They vanish fast and then you have to be there the day before to attempt walk ins.

If you have some experience, head for the cross country trailheads. You can almost always get a permit for them, and have to hike the first day to a destination that has a limited use trail at best. After that, the park is yours!

Great Recommendations: I have planned the following.

Tetons:Teton Crest Trail per Richard's recommendation

Beartooth Plateau: Green Lake and Clover Leaf Lakes.

Yosemite: Applied for permits from Tuolumne Meadows to Half Dome to Happy Isles. Could be/Will be high traffic, but my daughter wants to hike in Yosemite and Half Dome is on my list. Is this even worth doing? Likely alternatives are Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River or May Lakes to Ten Lakes loop.

Idaho and the Sawtooths are getting cut short. Still looking for a recommendation on an overnight kayak/packraft/canoe trip in Idaho on route from Yellowstone to Boise. Might just do a day hike and fishing around Stanley or Redfish Lake.

Cross country in Yosemite would be great. I have done extensive off trail navigation. Any recommended areas or routes?

Paul,

What is your exact summer timing?

– Elizabeth

You could pretty much do the trip you applied for (Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley) if you did the first day cross country and off trail to either Nelson Lake or Echo Lake. From there you can get to Little Yosemite Valley in a day…and from there you can get all the way down.

Those trailheads may not appear on some of their forms or web pages—they have very small quotas–but they do exist. Just make sure you know what you are doing off-trail. WE figure it takes us about twice as long to hike the same distance off-trail as on-trail…

You mention Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.

I think this is the superior hike (compared to the Tuolumne-Yosemite Valley hike), both for scenery and for crowd-avoidance.

However, the GC hike is all about the waterfalls and the water flow, which generally culminates in June. If you're in Yosemite in June, do this hike. If you're not coming till August, don't bother – especially in a low-snow year like this year. The water runoff will not be spectacular later in the season, and Waterwheel Falls (half the reason to do this hike) will probably not even have its waterwheel.

Start at White Wolf Trailhead, and hike one-way back to Tuolumne Meadows. We left our car at Tuolumne and very easily caught a ride to White Wolf. This hike is ~31 miles, and logical campsites are situated such that it makes the most sense to do it over 3 days.

However, I'm in agreement with what someone suggested upthread – if you only have three weeks, why not focus on one single region this summer? (Montana/Wyoming/Idaho.) That's a vast area with plenty to do. Adding Yosemite to the mix will add a lot of driving, and more crowds in Yosemite Valley than you can even imagine.

– Elizabeth

Reviving a post from last year.  The post started “I am planning a three week tour with my 13 year old daughter this summer. We are visiting Teton,Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks as well as spending some time in the Sawtooths.  I’m looking for 3 day/2 night backpack trips with 8-10 mile days.”

I received great advice in this thread and chose 3 trips.

1.) Teton Crest Trail from the top of the Tram to Jenny Lake.  This was a disaster.  The “Car Shuttle” killed this trip.  The “Car Shuttle” entailed leaving my car at Jenny Lake, catching the bus to Jackson, transferring to a bus that went to the other side of Jackson, transferring to another bus to get to the Jackson Hole Tram, purchasing Tram tickets, the Tram closing do to lightning…waiting out the rain/lightning until mid afternoon, giving up, and hiring a taxi to get back to my car at Jenny Lake.

2.) Beartooth Plateau:  This was much better with beautiful lush scenery, nice wildlife, excellent fishing and few people.  Here are some pictures.  The wildflowers are stunningly beautiful.   

3.) Sawthooths starting from Redfish Lake.  Another wonderful trip. We crossed the lake and hiked up to Alpine Lake.  From here the rest of the route was off trail exploring the Upper Redfish Lakes and surrounding peaks.  A prior BPL post highlighted the Upper Redfish Lakes fishing and the area did not disappoint.

So, I’m going to do it all again.  A three week (July) car tour starting in Southern California visiting Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon.  This time with my younger daughter, who will be 13 this summer.  Again, I’m looking for backpacking ideas.  First, we will backpack in the Beartooth Plateau.  This is the prettiest area I have visited, had great fishing and the terrain is moderate.  Second, my daughter is keen on backpacking the Lost Coast.  It looks beautiful, but I’m wondering if the unchanging scenery and lack of destination gets old.  Are you allowed to have fires on the beach in this area?   I’m also concerned about shuttling, given last years debacle.  I’m looking for other suggestions.  Northern Idaho and the Glacier National Park areas should be prime in terms of beauty, remoteness and fishing.  If I can combine some canoeing with backpacking, that would be interesting.  We are looking for remote areas, which may eliminate routes in Glacier National Park proper.

Ideas?

Back in the day we enjoyed some good fishing and few people in the Pole Creek Lakes and upper Pole Creek in the Wind River Range WY. I have not fished in years, so maybe things have changed in that area. It’s an easy day’s hike in from Elkhart Park with far less crowds than the Seneca Lake and Island Lake areas. You can also extend the trip, or do day hikes up to Cook Lakes, Spider Lake, Wall Lake and Lester Pass from the Pole Creek Lakes area.

Paul — that was real horror show you described for your attempt to do the Teton Crest Trail.  I feel pretty guilty since I was the one who suggested using a shuttle to make it work.

When we did the Teton Crest Trail, we used a private shuttle service to get from our rental car (which we left parked at Jenny Lake) to the Teton Village Tram.  We identified & communicated with the private shuttle in advance of our arrival in Jackson Hole by searching the internet to find a shuttle service that fit our plans, and also confirm its availability for picking us up at Jenny Lake & driving us to the tram.

Here’s a link to a posting I made for someone else back in 2009 describing our logistics —

http://tinyurl.com/Teton-Crest-Trail

The above posting also includes some pictures from our  our route along the trail.

Again, very much regret that the shuttle option didn’t work out to make your trip work.

Thanks for the note.   The first “bus” was a shuttle, but no direct service from Jenny to the Tram.  I made several mistakes that day.  My daughter and I spent time at the local coffee shop talking and eventually made it back to Jackson lake for some fishing.  A couple of fish over the campfire and it all became a part of the adventure.

For a truly great alpine trip, hike to Silver Lake in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Tougher hike than the Beartooth Plateau, tougher fishing too. But gorgeous.

Specifically regarding Glacier and the Bob Marshall;

Glacier is indeed quite crowded in July, and getting backcountry permits can be a hassle, but the scenery is worth it and once you get into the backcountry the industrial tourism fades quickly.  If you’ll have a canoe in tow I’d suggest driving up the North Fork and using the boat to start a backpack on either Bowman or Kintla Lakes.  This is a great option as both make for nice paddles, and allow you to skip some rather mundane miles through the forest.  Kintla is more remote, involves a slow 15 mile dirt road approach, and doesn’t allow motorized boats of any kind.  You may be limited in how far you can go as the trail west of Hole in the Wall melts out quite late and is often icy in July.

In the Bob a canoe is a great tool to use on Gibson Reservoir.  Scenic 8 mile paddle to start a backpack on either the North or South Fork of the Sun.  Quality fishing and easy walking in either direction.  Probable wildlife sightings as well.  Wind can be extreme on this lake, though this is less common in July than any other time of year.

Lost Coast in the summer is not as much fun as you might expect.  The coast there is covered in fog about 9 days out of 10, and every morning you will wake up everything absolutely coated with dew and condensation.

Best time to hike this trail is in September October, when the fog disappears.

Thanks for the notes.  I lived in the Bay Area and understand the fog comment for the Lost Coast.

The Bob Marshall Gibson Reservoir looks very much like the type of canoe/backpack trip I would like to do.  A brief search through maps, showed multiple guest ranches, highlighting horseback riding.  I try to avoid pack trails, and the advertisements for “drop camps” concerns me.

Are there trails or areas that I won’t find pack animals?

The only way to guarantee you won’t see stock in the Bob is to get off trail.  That said, some trails get a lot of stock use, and some very little.  The west side trail along the North Fork Sun, for instance, gets far less stock use than the east side.

If your daughter wants to do the Lost Coast, a somewhat different experience is to go to the southern portion in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. We did an out and back with my scout troop 5 years ago and had a great time. It’s really steep up and down along the coast with not many other folks. Coming from the central valley, we loved the coastal weather. You climb through evergreen forests with great views when you get to the ridge tops. One drawback is that trails are surrounded by poison oak.

Thanks for the notes.  Per the note above we will leave the Lost Coast for a future visit during the Fall

We will return to the Beartooth Plateau and I have a route plan I like.

The second trip has been narrowed down to either the Bob Marshall or Wind River.  I haven’t been to either.  Fishing is a high priority and we are spin fishers, so lakes are favored over streams.  It seems like the Wind River is more lake oriented with good fishing.  Any further recommendation on these areas and fishing?

For your possible second trip (Bob Marshall or Wind River), if you plan to do it after August, you might check when hunting season starts if you would like to avoid backpacking while hunters are active.  In Wind River, I believe hunting seasons start around mid-September.

If you consider entering Wind River range at Big Sandy trailhead, there’s a rustic lodge with small cabins, with a trail from the lodge for about a mile to the trailhead. Nice place to stay before and/or after trip starting and/or ending at Big Sandy trailhead. As with the trailhead, the lodge is about an hour’s drive from nearest paved road.

When we started at the Big Sandy trailhead several years ago, we reserved a cabin to have available for a few days upon our exit from the wilderness, and the lodge let us leave our truck parked at the lodge while we backpacked.

That was a lucky decision ‘cuz we had rain, snow, thunder & lightening almost the whole 10 miles of the last day when we hiked out.  Rather than having to drive more than an hour to get back to civilization, we had a warm cabin & hot meal waiting at the lodge soon as we got off the trail.

Here’s a link to the website for Big Sandy Lodge — http://www.big-sandy-lodge.com/

Thanks.  We are going to the Winds in July, so outside of hunting season.  The question now is whether we enter at Elkhart Park or Big Sandy Trail head.  We prioritize serenity and fishing (I have no idea where fishing is better or worse) but we will only hike 20-25 miles in three days, so not too far from civilization.  I’m concerned about pack animals at these trail heads and traffic on the CDT.  Any recommendations starting from either of these trail heads or other recommendations?

A post above mentioned the Elkhart trailhead.  If we start here, I’m looking at Pole Creek Lakes, Cook Lakes, Spider Lakes and Chain Lakes.