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- May 31, 2015
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May 9-11, 2025
Here is a little early season trip to get everyone hyped for their Yellowstone trips this summer. My friend Steve texted a week or so in advance to gauge interest in camping a night at Mammoth and then doing an overnighter in the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone area. It was a resounding yes.
We met up for dinner and car camping at the Mammoth campground. I had never stayed there before, but we all figure it is much quieter now since there is no longer thru traffic passing by both below and above. Steve and Whitney made nachos for dinner--excellent. The campground was full, but it was a very quiet night.
The next morning, we got a somewhat early start and were on the road by maybe 7:30. We parked at a pond by the road and watched a sleeping black bear and had breakfast. We then went and got prepared at one of the parking areas near Blacktail Deer Creek. From there, we piled into Steve's truck and headed to the Hellroaring Creek trailhead.
First bit of the trail.
It was a warm day. Probably topped out in the mid 70s, which was wild for mid May in the park. It was quite dry, and the river and streams were running high.
Rushing river below
First bridge. Very glad for robust backcountry bridges in this area.
Around the junction near the Hellroaring Creek ford. Fording the creek would have been a terrible idea, so we hiked up the creek to cross at the bridge up higher. This added around 3 miles to the route, which we figured we would have to do when we were planning. We met some bison along the way. The large groups were not along our route.
Pond near the ford. Lots of bird action at those ponds. Various ducks, coots, red-winged blackbirds, yellow headed blackbirds...
Standing on the bridge over Hellroaring Creek, which earns its name.
We took a rest and had a snack at the bridge.
Along the north side of the creek.
We reached the ranger cabin along the creek, and a ranger was outside chopping wood. She checked our permits and said we'd probably run into her companions a ways up the trail. And we did come across them shortly after. They were on foot, coming back from doing some trail clearing. They hadn't been to the Black Canyon yet, so they asked us to send them an update via text when we were done.
Taking a quick break during the heat of the day. Not a ton of cloud cover.
Little spring fed stream.
Dude seemed not to have a care in the world.
We walked through a lot of thorns to get to a shady spot on a creek for lunch. I was glad I had pants on. The streams in this area all had a brown tannin-like tinge. It wasn't sediment, anyway (the river is another story).
On we went.
Little stream crossing along the trail.
Looking up the Yellowstone.
Decent number of bones and sheds out here. Andrew and Steve said there were significantly more the last time they were here, around 10 years ago. This was still more than I'm used to seeing most places.
Nice viewpoint looking downstream.
A bit bigger stream crossing. Spring classic.
Standing above a large cut bank along the river. Presumably heavily impacted by the flood a few years ago.
We reached camp at 1Y7 and relaxed in the shade for a bit. The site is massive. There were a lot of red ants all around, so we tried to sit in places where they were fewer in number.
I went down to the river to stand in the water and cool off. There was a channel that was shallower and slightly slower, so that helped.
Lot of bison sign everywhere. This was the biggest pile of shed fur I saw.
There was supposed to be nearly no chance of rain, but it clouded up around dinner and rained a tiny bit. There was a bit of thunder too. Not enough rain to send us to our tents, fortunately. The river water was predictably quite silty. It slowed our filters down, but we were at least still able to filter water without much trouble.
Dinner time.
A while after dinner, we started boiling water to make tea. I was sitting in the green chair in the photo above. I looked up from what I was doing, and behind the others up a little slope in a patch of trees, there was a black bear about 20-30 feet away looking at us. I interrupted and said something like "oh shit, a black bear." Everyone turned and looked at it. Andrew and I snapped a couple photos. Then it started walking down the slope toward us. Come on, man.
I think this photo is really funny. The moment when it decided it wanted to come down to us.
We all jumped up, Steve grabbed a cup and a spoon and beat them together, and I yelled at it, and it jogged off to our side, maybe 40 feet away. I got a video of it as it walked by.
As it walked away in that video, it was headed to our tents. So Whitney and I sat with the food while Steve and Andrew followed it over there and spent about 10 minutes trying to get it to leave. It almost climbed the big tree between all our tents, but then it opted not to. After a bit, Steve opted to try throwing a rock near it. The rock bounced, and it hit the bear on the bounce. That scared it enough that it took off for good. We didn't see or hear from it again.
Andrew took this one of the bear near his tent.
And that was the excitement for the evening! We had a couple deer at the camp site too. We went to bed and I actually slept quite well. It rained for a bit overnight, but it was warm and breezy enough that my tent was completely dry when I woke up.
There was a handful of loud geese that kept flying up and down the river and were nesting at a spot near the camp site, so that was our alarm in the morning. It was a warm and sunny morning, but we knew rain was on the way and would get to us by around noon.
We took a look at Crevice Lake on the way out. Neat lake, felt unique for it to be there in the middle of a fairly narrow river canyon.
Approaching the bridge.
Crossing the bridge
Hiking up and out, above Blacktail Deer Creek.
Neat rock that the creek has cut through.
Same spot, looking downstream.
Clouds building as we made our way out
It started raining as we got pretty close to the trailhead. There was a lot of animal activity at Blacktail Pond, as there were a couple carcasses that had various animals on them over the last while. We saw buzzards and coyotes, which was neat. Some people at the trailhead said there was an eagle earlier.
Dark spot through the grass in the center is the buzzard.
Looking back at where we came from.
And that was it! Fun weekend trip, and I'm glad we did it. That trail is probably very hot and difficult later in the season, and I guess we got a taste of that with the warm weather. I'd like to see the canyon when the river is the blue color I've seen in photos, but it was cool to see it during high runoff. Thanks for reading!
Here is a little early season trip to get everyone hyped for their Yellowstone trips this summer. My friend Steve texted a week or so in advance to gauge interest in camping a night at Mammoth and then doing an overnighter in the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone area. It was a resounding yes.
We met up for dinner and car camping at the Mammoth campground. I had never stayed there before, but we all figure it is much quieter now since there is no longer thru traffic passing by both below and above. Steve and Whitney made nachos for dinner--excellent. The campground was full, but it was a very quiet night.
The next morning, we got a somewhat early start and were on the road by maybe 7:30. We parked at a pond by the road and watched a sleeping black bear and had breakfast. We then went and got prepared at one of the parking areas near Blacktail Deer Creek. From there, we piled into Steve's truck and headed to the Hellroaring Creek trailhead.
First bit of the trail.
It was a warm day. Probably topped out in the mid 70s, which was wild for mid May in the park. It was quite dry, and the river and streams were running high.
Rushing river below
First bridge. Very glad for robust backcountry bridges in this area.
Around the junction near the Hellroaring Creek ford. Fording the creek would have been a terrible idea, so we hiked up the creek to cross at the bridge up higher. This added around 3 miles to the route, which we figured we would have to do when we were planning. We met some bison along the way. The large groups were not along our route.
Pond near the ford. Lots of bird action at those ponds. Various ducks, coots, red-winged blackbirds, yellow headed blackbirds...
Standing on the bridge over Hellroaring Creek, which earns its name.
We took a rest and had a snack at the bridge.
Along the north side of the creek.
We reached the ranger cabin along the creek, and a ranger was outside chopping wood. She checked our permits and said we'd probably run into her companions a ways up the trail. And we did come across them shortly after. They were on foot, coming back from doing some trail clearing. They hadn't been to the Black Canyon yet, so they asked us to send them an update via text when we were done.
Taking a quick break during the heat of the day. Not a ton of cloud cover.
Little spring fed stream.
Dude seemed not to have a care in the world.
We walked through a lot of thorns to get to a shady spot on a creek for lunch. I was glad I had pants on. The streams in this area all had a brown tannin-like tinge. It wasn't sediment, anyway (the river is another story).
On we went.
Little stream crossing along the trail.
Looking up the Yellowstone.
Decent number of bones and sheds out here. Andrew and Steve said there were significantly more the last time they were here, around 10 years ago. This was still more than I'm used to seeing most places.
Nice viewpoint looking downstream.
A bit bigger stream crossing. Spring classic.
Standing above a large cut bank along the river. Presumably heavily impacted by the flood a few years ago.
We reached camp at 1Y7 and relaxed in the shade for a bit. The site is massive. There were a lot of red ants all around, so we tried to sit in places where they were fewer in number.
I went down to the river to stand in the water and cool off. There was a channel that was shallower and slightly slower, so that helped.
Lot of bison sign everywhere. This was the biggest pile of shed fur I saw.
There was supposed to be nearly no chance of rain, but it clouded up around dinner and rained a tiny bit. There was a bit of thunder too. Not enough rain to send us to our tents, fortunately. The river water was predictably quite silty. It slowed our filters down, but we were at least still able to filter water without much trouble.
Dinner time.
A while after dinner, we started boiling water to make tea. I was sitting in the green chair in the photo above. I looked up from what I was doing, and behind the others up a little slope in a patch of trees, there was a black bear about 20-30 feet away looking at us. I interrupted and said something like "oh shit, a black bear." Everyone turned and looked at it. Andrew and I snapped a couple photos. Then it started walking down the slope toward us. Come on, man.
I think this photo is really funny. The moment when it decided it wanted to come down to us.
We all jumped up, Steve grabbed a cup and a spoon and beat them together, and I yelled at it, and it jogged off to our side, maybe 40 feet away. I got a video of it as it walked by.
As it walked away in that video, it was headed to our tents. So Whitney and I sat with the food while Steve and Andrew followed it over there and spent about 10 minutes trying to get it to leave. It almost climbed the big tree between all our tents, but then it opted not to. After a bit, Steve opted to try throwing a rock near it. The rock bounced, and it hit the bear on the bounce. That scared it enough that it took off for good. We didn't see or hear from it again.
Andrew took this one of the bear near his tent.
And that was the excitement for the evening! We had a couple deer at the camp site too. We went to bed and I actually slept quite well. It rained for a bit overnight, but it was warm and breezy enough that my tent was completely dry when I woke up.
There was a handful of loud geese that kept flying up and down the river and were nesting at a spot near the camp site, so that was our alarm in the morning. It was a warm and sunny morning, but we knew rain was on the way and would get to us by around noon.
We took a look at Crevice Lake on the way out. Neat lake, felt unique for it to be there in the middle of a fairly narrow river canyon.
Approaching the bridge.
Hiking up and out, above Blacktail Deer Creek.
Neat rock that the creek has cut through.
Same spot, looking downstream.
Clouds building as we made our way out
It started raining as we got pretty close to the trailhead. There was a lot of animal activity at Blacktail Pond, as there were a couple carcasses that had various animals on them over the last while. We saw buzzards and coyotes, which was neat. Some people at the trailhead said there was an eagle earlier.
Dark spot through the grass in the center is the buzzard.
Looking back at where we came from.
And that was it! Fun weekend trip, and I'm glad we did it. That trail is probably very hot and difficult later in the season, and I guess we got a taste of that with the warm weather. I'd like to see the canyon when the river is the blue color I've seen in photos, but it was cool to see it during high runoff. Thanks for reading!
