Fellow travelers and hiking lovers,
I am in search of some feedback from people who have been to Yellowstone and are knowledgeable with our tentative plans and itinerary, and am open to all suggestions if our plan isn't feasible.
Myself and a friend are meeting up in Salt Lake City and will be driving up and staying in West Yellowstone on 5/1, anticipating an early start the next morning. We are both fairly experienced hikers and campers however, this will be out first time in Yellowstone. Unfortunately due to some obligations that came up we had to cut our time a bit short, but we didn't want to cancel and rescheduling wasn't an option.
On the morning of 5/2 we had planned to have a shuttle service take us to drop a vehicle at the Blacktail Deer Creek trailhead, and then drop us at the Hellroaring trailhead to hike and back country camp along the Yellowstone/Black Canyon. We are planning to split this into a two night camping trip (camping 5/2 and 5/3) and exit early on Saturday 5/4. That day we plan to do maybe a shorter day hike on our way exiting the park and heading back to Salt Lake City Saturday night.
Gear wise we will be pretty much prepared for anything and know that the conditions are going to vary widely and are prepared to camp with cold and snowy conditions.
My questions are:
1. Is this a decent plan and trail for this time of year?
2. Will we be able to access this from the West Yellowstone gate area and they drive north and then east over to the trailheads? It looked like in reviewing the information the routes will be open.
3. Is shuttle service the easiest/more cost effective way if doing a point to point hike?
4. Should we stick to this plan, or maybe alter and spend our time in Grand Tetons instead?
Open to all suggestions! I know it's a really short amount of time, but we are really just looking to spend a few nights in the park and relax and enjoy some solitude early in the season.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I am in search of some feedback from people who have been to Yellowstone and are knowledgeable with our tentative plans and itinerary, and am open to all suggestions if our plan isn't feasible.
Myself and a friend are meeting up in Salt Lake City and will be driving up and staying in West Yellowstone on 5/1, anticipating an early start the next morning. We are both fairly experienced hikers and campers however, this will be out first time in Yellowstone. Unfortunately due to some obligations that came up we had to cut our time a bit short, but we didn't want to cancel and rescheduling wasn't an option.
On the morning of 5/2 we had planned to have a shuttle service take us to drop a vehicle at the Blacktail Deer Creek trailhead, and then drop us at the Hellroaring trailhead to hike and back country camp along the Yellowstone/Black Canyon. We are planning to split this into a two night camping trip (camping 5/2 and 5/3) and exit early on Saturday 5/4. That day we plan to do maybe a shorter day hike on our way exiting the park and heading back to Salt Lake City Saturday night.
Gear wise we will be pretty much prepared for anything and know that the conditions are going to vary widely and are prepared to camp with cold and snowy conditions.
My questions are:
1. Is this a decent plan and trail for this time of year?
2. Will we be able to access this from the West Yellowstone gate area and they drive north and then east over to the trailheads? It looked like in reviewing the information the routes will be open.
3. Is shuttle service the easiest/more cost effective way if doing a point to point hike?
4. Should we stick to this plan, or maybe alter and spend our time in Grand Tetons instead?
Open to all suggestions! I know it's a really short amount of time, but we are really just looking to spend a few nights in the park and relax and enjoy some solitude early in the season.
Thanks in advance for any advice.