Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

has over "Hiking in the Park" page of Yellowstone:Plan Your Visit section of National Park Service websit

retrieved May 19, 2007. of blazed and mapped hiking trails, including some that have been in use for hundreds of years. Several of these trails were the sites of historical events. Yellowstone's trails are noted for various

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in ...

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s, and other geothermal features, and for viewing of

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

s, and free-ranging herds of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

and

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

Prehistoric times

In the Middle Prehistoric era, humans appear to have continued living in mountain areas through droughts severe enough for plains populations to disappear.Earl H. Swanson, Jr., "Cultural Relations Between Two Plains", ''Archaeology in Montana'' 7, no. 2 (April–June 1966), pp. 1-2, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''. Evidence suggests that the Yellowstone Plateau was occupied continuously, with seasonal movement among preferred places. Foragers wintered in protected valleys along the edges of the plateau, and summered in higher hunting grounds that might have extended fifty to a hundred miles away.Aubrey L. Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One'', Yellowstone Library and Museum Association / Colorado Associated University Press, 1977, . Some of the seasonal routes developed into often-used trails. Artifacts from this era are found throughout the park, with large enough concentrations around Yellowstone Lake to suggest a substantial population.Carling Malouf, "Preliminary Report, Yellowstone National Park Archaeological Survey, Summer 1958", mimeographed, Montana State University, Missoula, January 5, 1959, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''.

Early 1800s

First white discoverer used Indian trail sections

John Colter John Colter (c.1770–1775 – May 7, 1812 or November 22, 1813) was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). Though party to one of the more famous expeditions in history, Colter is best remembered for explorations he made ...

(or Coulter), a former member of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

, spent the winter of 1806-1807 trapping along the middle

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains an ...

. With the information he learned there, he was hired by the Missouri Fur Trading Company to invite Indian tribes to the trading post the company built at the mouth of the Big Horn River in October 1807.M.O. Skarsten, "George Drouillard", in ''The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West'', volume 4, Arthur A. Clark Co., 1966, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''. In the winter of 1807-1808, soliciting trade with the

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

and other native tribes, Colter traveled alone on a route that included the Yellowstone Plateau, making him the first white man to see

Yellowstone Lake Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is above sea level and covers with of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is , its greatest depth is at least . Yellowstone Lake is the largest fre ...

and some of the area's unique features.William Clark's Map of the West, in Nicholas Biddle, ''History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark'', volume 2, Bradford and Inskeep, 1814, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''. Colter's route included Indian trails both inside and outside the current park, such as over Pryor Gap near

Cody, Wyoming Cody is a city in Northwest Wyoming and the seat of government of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Colonel William Frederick " Buffalo Bill" Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896. The population was 10,066 at ...

; around the west shore of Yellowstone Lake and down Yellowstone River to the crossing near

Tower Fall Tower Fall is a waterfall on Tower Creek in the northeastern region of Yellowstone National Park, in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Approximately upstream from the creek's confluence with the Yellowstone River, the fall plunges 132 feet (40&nbs ...

(a geothermal area on the east bank is "Hot Spring Brimstone" on Clark's map); and continuing up

Lamar River The Lamar River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long, in northwestern Wyoming in the United States. The river is located entirely within Yellowstone National Park. History Prior to the 1884–85 Geological Survey of the ...

and

Soda Butte Creek Soda Butte Creek is an approximately long major tributary of the Lamar River in Yellowstone National Park. It is named for a now-extinct geyser (Soda Butte) near its mouth. Soda Butte and the creek were named by A. Bart Henderson, a Cooke City m ...

and Clarks Fork to return to the Pryor Gap trail.Merrill J. Mattes, "Behind the Legend of Colter's Hell: The Early Exploration of the Yellowstone National Park", ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 36, number 2 (September 1949), pp. 253-54, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''.

Bannock Trail

By 1840, bison (buffalo) had been hunted and trapped to

extirpation Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

west of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

. The

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

and

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle * Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying * Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Oregon ...

tribes had established a plains-style culture based on the buffalo on the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

plains, but the regional extirpation forced them to organize hunting migrations across the Yellowstone Plateau. These tribes established a route that became known as the Bannock Trail.Aubrey L. Haines, "The Bannock Indian Trails of Yellowstone National Park", cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''. The route began at Camas Meadows in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, went over

Targhee Pass Targhee Pass is a mountain pass in the western United States on the Continental Divide. It is located along the border between southeastern Idaho and southwestern Montana, in the Henrys Lake Mountains at an elevation of above sea level. The ...

, followed the Madison River basin, went over the

Gallatin Mountains The Gallatin Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains, located in the U.S. states of Montana and Wyoming. It includes more than 10 mountains over . The highest peak in the range is Electric Peak at . The Gallatin Range was named after A ...

near

Mount Holmes Mount Holmes is a prominent mountain peak in Yellowstone National Park. It is the tallest mountain in the Wyoming portion of the Gallatin Range. Mount Holmes is located in the northwestern part of the park and marks the southern terminus of the ...

, down Indian Creek to the Gardner River, through Snow Pass to Mammoth Hot Springs, up Lava Creek, through the meadows of Blacktail Deer Creek, to the "Bannock Ford" crossing of the

near Tower Fall, up the Lamar Valley, and over the Absaroka Range into the Clarks Fork Valley. From there, Bannock and Shoshone (often with Flathead and

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

) would choose between the Yellowstone Valley and the Wyoming Basin to hunt bison. For forty years ending in 1878 with the

Bannock War The Bannock War of 1878 was an armed conflict between the U.S. military and Bannock and Paiute warriors in Idaho and northeastern Oregon from June to August 1878. The Bannock totaled about 600 to 800 in 1870 because of other Shoshone peoples b ...

, tribes used the Bannock Trail for access to drainages such as the Madison, Gallatin, Yellowstone, Stillwater, Clarks Fork, and Shoshone valleys, and through them to a more distant arc of buffalo ranges.

Folsom party used Indian trails

The most organized of the numerous explorations into Yellowstone in the 1860s was the 1869

Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition The Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869 was the first organized expedition to explore the region that became Yellowstone National Park. The privately financed expedition was carried out by David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook and William Pete ...

. It was particularly well documented as having traveled on existing Indian trails. From the Bozeman Pass area, the three-man group rode on a former Indian trail up Meadow Creek from the Gallatin drainage to the Yellowstone drainage, and down Trail Creek (named for its old trail) to the Yellowstone Valley, as miners had done since 1864. They followed Indian trails up the Yellowstone River the rest of the way south to the mouth of the Gardner River, where the trail forked. The party used the fork over Blacktail Deer Creek Plateau to the head of Rescue Creek.Charles W. Cook, David E. Folsom, and William Peterson, ''The Valley of the Upper Yellowstone'', University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, cited in Haines, ''The Yellowstone Story, Volume One''. Portions of their later travels used other trails long used by natives. An article by Charles W. Cook and David E. Folsom describing the expedition was published in a Chicago magazine in 1870, raising popular attention. David Folsom worked with Walter W. deLacy, another explorer of Yellowstone, to revise deLacy's 1865 map; the 1870 edition aided that year's Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. They followed the same route into the area as far as Rescue Creek, then used the Bannock Trail eastward. Like the Folsom party, Washburn's group used other Indian trails around parts of Yellowstone Lake and elsewhere in the future Park.

First years as a national park

Yellowstone's first superintendent,

Nathaniel P. Langford Nathaniel Pitt Langford (August 9, 1832 – October 18, 1911) was an American explorer, businessman, bureaucrat, vigilante and historian from Saint Paul, Minnesota who played an important role in the early years of the Montana gold fields, terri ...

, served without salary from 1872 to 1877. He also worked without funds, and entered the park only twice in his five years of service. Under Langford, no trails were developed, and existing trails were maintained only by their users and guides.

Trail development by P.W. Norris

Yellowstone's second superintendent,

Philetus W. Norris Philetus W. Norris (August 17, 1821 – January 14, 1885) was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was the first person to be paid for that position. Early life Philetus Walter Norris was born in Palmyra (town), New York, ...

, served from 1877 to 1882. His administration, unlike Langford's, had a budget for roadbuilding and trailbuilding. In his five years, the park trail system was increased from to , many miles of existing trails were improved into roads, and wooden signboards were added at many trail intersections and natural features. Superintendent Norris added the trail (later a road) east through Lamar Valley and out the park's northeast corner, in 1878. He discovered, explored, and cleared a trail over the Washburn Range through Rowland Pass, in 1878.Lee H. Whittlesey, ''Yellowstone Place Names'', Montana Historical Society Press, Helena, Montana, USA, 1988, .

Current trail system

Many trails in Yellowstone traverse Bear Management Areas and are seasonally closed or restricted to reduce human contact with bears.

Interpretive and attraction related trails

These trails are primarily associated with park attractions, especially geothermal features, and are sometimes out and back day hikes, and in many cases are improved boardwalks and supported with interpretive signs and exhibits.

Backcountry trails

These trails traverse the Yellowstone backcountry and many have backcountry campsites along their route.

Notes

References

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