- Joined
- May 31, 2015
- Messages
- 3,064
October 11-14, 2019.
This may look familiar to you because @scatman already shared his awesome report from the trip. Here I am a few weeks later to tell just about the same story. We had watched the weather for weeks, hoping that we wouldn't get snowed out. I believe Hugh had actually been planning this route for a few years now. We were going to do it in 2018, but a good winter storm caused us to scrap the plans. Anyway, despite some snowfall in the days leading up to the trip, the weather forecast looked good (if a little chilly) and it was a go. This would be my second time in this wilderness area.
Woke up at 4:40 a.m. to get all my things together and get to Hugh's. We got breakfast at Sill's in Layton and were on our way as the sun was just coming up. We reached the trailhead after a brief lunch stop in Jackson.
There were some hunters camped at the trailhead with their horses, but they were the only people we'd see until we got back to the trailhead Monday. The told us a few times to be safe, and made sure to ascertain when we'd be coming back in case they needed to call in SAR. Very kind people.
We headed up the muddy, still partially frozen trail. Missed our turnoff by a little ways and backtracked to get back on the right path.
Pacific Creek looking nice.
Back on the right path. Didn't look like anyone had been through in a while.
We worked our way out of the woods into a series of grassy meadows. There was plenty of evidence of bear activity.
Likely where a grizzly had dug for roots.
Nice views deeper into the wilderness.
More evidence of grizzlies digging for lunch.
We dropped down to Whetstone Creek and were faced with a ford. The gaiters+waterproof boots combo proved to be a great solution.
Sizing up the crossing.
We got to a nice spot and set up camp before it got dark and cold.
Despite the lack of clouds to accentuate it, the sunset was nice and made for a very wintry scene.
It got good and cold that night. Also due to the shortening days, we spent about 13 hours in our tents each night.
The next morning was a hike up the east fork of Whetstone Creek. We had originally intended to do a loop of the east and west forks of the creek in one day, but our explorations proved that that would have been a tall order given the amount of daylight and our ability to find the trail along the lower part of the east fork.
The creek had a thick layer of slush on top from the cold night.
As alluded to above, we had some trouble finding the trail. We found remnants of the old trail through the area, but we later learned that it had been re-routed (not indicated on maps) up on the bench above the creek. We got to thrash through plenty of willows.
Looking down at the bushwhack ahead.
Climbing up to the proper trail. This is looking back toward the lower bits of the creek.
Up on the bench. Pleasant walking. We followed a grizzly's tracks for quite a while up this trail.
A big meadow full of orange willow.
We got a good ways up the trail and decided to turn around so we could have plenty of daylight at camp and attempt to make a fire (we had failed the night before). We learned about our mistake in taking the wrong trail in the morning and it was a pretty simple walk back.
We didn't get a fire started the second night either. The wood just wasn't drying out quickly up there with the fairly recent snow, cool temperatures, and hard freeze every night.
Our boots were frozen solid in the morning.
I whacked my boots repeatedly with a rock to break up the ice and get them to be more flexible. It kind of worked.
Today was a walk up the west fork of Whetstone Creek.
Came across these smaller tracks in the snow just a little ways outside of camp.
We walked through lots of burn. It was interesting seeing that some stands of trees survived the fire and others didn't. Also that the burned areas didn't really have much new growth despite looking like they burned a long time ago. I've tried to figure out when this area burned, and my best guess is that we were in the southernmost reaches of the Huck Fire, which was part of the Yellowstone fires of 1988. Happy to be corrected on that.
Interesting pond along the way.
Getting close to the very top of the drainage.
Views at the top were great. We could see way into the park. We're pretty sure we could even see Yellowstone Lake far out there in the distance.
Looking back down the west fork drainage out into the Teton Wilderness.
It was very warm in our tents when we got back, thanks to the strong sunlight. I tried to dry out my boots and my socks. Not successful. I always forget how much sweat can build up inside of waterproof boots.
Finally got the fire going on the last night. We managed to stay up a little later than usual since we had it to keep us a tad warmer.
We got up and headed out the next morning.
Proof that I was actually there.
We came across some bear tracks that weren't there on our way in. These were frozen into the ground.
We got back up to the meadowy spots on the lower parts of Whetstone Mountain. As I was busy staring at the ground looking for more bear tracks, my thoughts were interrupted as Hugh said "grizzly." Good thing he was looking because I would've walked right by just staring at the ground. We had come across a grizzly maybe 50 yards away. My first time seeing one not from the roadside in Yellowstone or in captivity. I'm not sure that he had noticed us right away, but as we stood there, we watched as he caught our scent and looked up. He found us quickly, watched us for a second, got up on his hind legs for a better look, and went back to grazing. He did that a few times, and then took off running away from us. Such an amazing and awe-inspiring experience. I don't know that I've ever felt that vulnerable while out in the woods. You can never be certain how they're going to act, but that was probably just about the best encounter I could have hoped for.
One of the crappy shots I got of it a bit before he started paying attention to us.
The rest of the hike out went well. The trail was fortunately still frozen in a lot of muddy spots, so that saved us a lot of grief. The hunters we had met on the way in were packing up and heading out when we got back. We had a nice chat with them. They had talked to some other hunters who had seen 5 grizzly bears during the few nights they were in the wilderness. What a wild place.
This may look familiar to you because @scatman already shared his awesome report from the trip. Here I am a few weeks later to tell just about the same story. We had watched the weather for weeks, hoping that we wouldn't get snowed out. I believe Hugh had actually been planning this route for a few years now. We were going to do it in 2018, but a good winter storm caused us to scrap the plans. Anyway, despite some snowfall in the days leading up to the trip, the weather forecast looked good (if a little chilly) and it was a go. This would be my second time in this wilderness area.
Woke up at 4:40 a.m. to get all my things together and get to Hugh's. We got breakfast at Sill's in Layton and were on our way as the sun was just coming up. We reached the trailhead after a brief lunch stop in Jackson.
There were some hunters camped at the trailhead with their horses, but they were the only people we'd see until we got back to the trailhead Monday. The told us a few times to be safe, and made sure to ascertain when we'd be coming back in case they needed to call in SAR. Very kind people.
We headed up the muddy, still partially frozen trail. Missed our turnoff by a little ways and backtracked to get back on the right path.
Pacific Creek looking nice.
Back on the right path. Didn't look like anyone had been through in a while.
We worked our way out of the woods into a series of grassy meadows. There was plenty of evidence of bear activity.
Likely where a grizzly had dug for roots.
Nice views deeper into the wilderness.
More evidence of grizzlies digging for lunch.
We dropped down to Whetstone Creek and were faced with a ford. The gaiters+waterproof boots combo proved to be a great solution.
Sizing up the crossing.
We got to a nice spot and set up camp before it got dark and cold.
Despite the lack of clouds to accentuate it, the sunset was nice and made for a very wintry scene.
It got good and cold that night. Also due to the shortening days, we spent about 13 hours in our tents each night.
The next morning was a hike up the east fork of Whetstone Creek. We had originally intended to do a loop of the east and west forks of the creek in one day, but our explorations proved that that would have been a tall order given the amount of daylight and our ability to find the trail along the lower part of the east fork.
The creek had a thick layer of slush on top from the cold night.
As alluded to above, we had some trouble finding the trail. We found remnants of the old trail through the area, but we later learned that it had been re-routed (not indicated on maps) up on the bench above the creek. We got to thrash through plenty of willows.
Looking down at the bushwhack ahead.
Climbing up to the proper trail. This is looking back toward the lower bits of the creek.
Up on the bench. Pleasant walking. We followed a grizzly's tracks for quite a while up this trail.
A big meadow full of orange willow.
We got a good ways up the trail and decided to turn around so we could have plenty of daylight at camp and attempt to make a fire (we had failed the night before). We learned about our mistake in taking the wrong trail in the morning and it was a pretty simple walk back.
We didn't get a fire started the second night either. The wood just wasn't drying out quickly up there with the fairly recent snow, cool temperatures, and hard freeze every night.
Our boots were frozen solid in the morning.
I whacked my boots repeatedly with a rock to break up the ice and get them to be more flexible. It kind of worked.
Today was a walk up the west fork of Whetstone Creek.
Came across these smaller tracks in the snow just a little ways outside of camp.
We walked through lots of burn. It was interesting seeing that some stands of trees survived the fire and others didn't. Also that the burned areas didn't really have much new growth despite looking like they burned a long time ago. I've tried to figure out when this area burned, and my best guess is that we were in the southernmost reaches of the Huck Fire, which was part of the Yellowstone fires of 1988. Happy to be corrected on that.
Interesting pond along the way.
Getting close to the very top of the drainage.
Views at the top were great. We could see way into the park. We're pretty sure we could even see Yellowstone Lake far out there in the distance.
Looking back down the west fork drainage out into the Teton Wilderness.
It was very warm in our tents when we got back, thanks to the strong sunlight. I tried to dry out my boots and my socks. Not successful. I always forget how much sweat can build up inside of waterproof boots.
Finally got the fire going on the last night. We managed to stay up a little later than usual since we had it to keep us a tad warmer.
We got up and headed out the next morning.
Proof that I was actually there.
We came across some bear tracks that weren't there on our way in. These were frozen into the ground.
We got back up to the meadowy spots on the lower parts of Whetstone Mountain. As I was busy staring at the ground looking for more bear tracks, my thoughts were interrupted as Hugh said "grizzly." Good thing he was looking because I would've walked right by just staring at the ground. We had come across a grizzly maybe 50 yards away. My first time seeing one not from the roadside in Yellowstone or in captivity. I'm not sure that he had noticed us right away, but as we stood there, we watched as he caught our scent and looked up. He found us quickly, watched us for a second, got up on his hind legs for a better look, and went back to grazing. He did that a few times, and then took off running away from us. Such an amazing and awe-inspiring experience. I don't know that I've ever felt that vulnerable while out in the woods. You can never be certain how they're going to act, but that was probably just about the best encounter I could have hoped for.
One of the crappy shots I got of it a bit before he started paying attention to us.
The rest of the hike out went well. The trail was fortunately still frozen in a lot of muddy spots, so that saved us a lot of grief. The hunters we had met on the way in were packing up and heading out when we got back. We had a nice chat with them. They had talked to some other hunters who had seen 5 grizzly bears during the few nights they were in the wilderness. What a wild place.
Last edited:
It was a great trip Jackson, and thanks for taking the time to post your shots. I think my toes are still cold from the trip. I need to sit down one of these days and figure out where to go in the wilderness next October. I sure would like to see Moss Lake one of these years. 
