Th e G re ate r Ye l lowsto ne
Eagle Peak
J
Trail Lake
ust off the Continental Divide, deep in Wyoming’s Absaroka Range and Teton Wilderness, Younts Peak brushes thin air at 12,156 feet. When the melt season arrives, snowfields in a cirque high up on the massif’s north face and other flanks are adorned with countless rivulets. Trickling off the snow, they weave in the mountain’s tundra forming small creeks as they gather in the denser vegetation below, providing the initial waters for the North and South forks of the Yellowstone River. Beneath Younts’ west wall the two branches unite to power the surge of the largest undammed, free running river in America as it commences its 670-mile long odyssey to meet the Missouri beyond Sidney, Montana. And what a journey it makes!
Bridger Lake
Trident Mountain
Hawks Rest
Two Ocean Plateau Younts Peak
From its spawning grounds 28 air miles below Yellowstone National Park’s southeast corner, the fabled river enters a narrow deep canyon and fights its way down a boulder-strewn course. For almost ten miles, it passes through a forest of pine, spruce and fir fitted with small meadows and willow flats. As a result of the 1988 fires that burned so much of Yellowstone National Park and this corner of the Teton Wilderness, the flora mix is changing; some new aspen growth is now being observed and lodgepole pine is coming back in many places, while exhibits of wildflowers, including arnica and fireweed, are sprouting up under burnt snags. From the Continental Divide on its west and Thunder Mountain and volcanic cliffs on its east, numerous unnamed streams and waterfalls add to the flow, and industrious beavers construct their dams. The rough Continental Divide Trail follows the river on its north and east side with many small, but easy creek crossings. It is here, in its first mile of flow, that the river, in connecting with one of the nation’s finest, untamed wilderness landscapes… gains its wild soul. Far from any road, this is the canyon of the Upper Yellowstone. Near Hawk’s Rest, the Yellowstone departs its narrow confines and embarks on a torturous meander through the marshy river bottoms of the 21 mile long Yellowstone Meadows and Thorofare Valley. These wetlands extend from one to two miles across, and the river, with its islands, channels and deep pools, is up to 160 feet wide in places. Lush meadows of high grass and dense willows border prime moose habitat as well as
Younts Peak. Larry Mayer
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