Lamar River Trail

In Yellowstone National Park, we hike along the Lamar River trail, where the pronghorn and the bison play. Or snooze,

or roll in the dust, as the case may be.

Our destination is Cache Creek.

The views along the way are unbeatable,

with the wildflowers in full bloom.

Back on the Lamar, Steve catches quite a few cutthroat trout.

He claims to have caught about 20 trout on one grasshopper imitation fly, the middle one in the group above.  It does look a little worse for wear, compared to the new ones.

Steve and a couple of fisherman share trade secrets on the river.
I took the photo of them from the road, where I waited for Steve to return.  As I sat there, a bear jam formed, with scopes pointed at the terrace directly above the fishermen.  A couple of grizzly rolled in the grass and lazed around, unaware of the fishermen, who were also unaware of them, a good situation for all.

Lamar River

Last week, we were back in Yellowstone.  Above are the meadows along Soda Butte Creek, with peaks of the Beartooth Range rising in the background. 

Steve practiced his fishing skills again, mostly along the Lamar River.

Quite a few 14-18 inch cutthroat trout succumbed to the siren call of his homemade dry flies. 

Since our last trip, he has been busily tying a supply of simply irresistible dry flies, the exact identity of which he is unwilling to reveal here.  (Hint:  not a hopper pattern.  And absolutely no night crawlers. Also, he insists that I report that he did not stoop to nymphing.)

As usual, he released all trout to be caught another day. The cutthroat left a swirl of water and a trail of silt behind him as he scooted off, stage right. 
Yellowstone fishing rules now require the release of all trout with any cutthroat markings.

Numerous pronghorn antelope graze in the Lamar Valley.  (The buildings in the background are the old Buffalo Ranch, now called the Yellowstone Institute.)

These graceful creatures will take off running sometimes, apparently just for the fun of it.  A couple of tourists, excited to share, told us these were elk.  Sadly, we had to disillusion them.  They seemed just as happy to have spotted a couple of pronghorns.

A group of common mergansers floated along the river.

Here's the osprey nest we saw last trip.  The young osprey have fledged, but we saw a couple of them flying back to the nest, probably checking to see if mom and dad had brought any snacks home lately.

Along Slough Creek, we spotted this badger peeking out of his burrow.

Look at that bull bison shamelessly goosing a cow right in front of all the tourists.  Why, some of them might have been impressionable children!  How rude.

This calf decided it was lunch time.  Neither he nor mom cared if they stopped traffic while he enjoyed a long drink. 

Along the Streams of Yellowstone

Much of our Yellowstone trip was spent fishing - well, Steve was fishing, not me.  Above, Steve brings in a fish on Slough Creek. 

I took pictures of the reflections,

the frogs (about 2 inches long),

the forest service cabin,

and the wagons bringing tourists back and forth from the Silver Tip Dude Ranch, located in Montana, just outside the park border.  The old Slough Creek wagon road is still used to bring supplies and tourists to the ranch.

Here's an 18 inch cutthroat trout that Steve caught on Soda Butte Creek in Lamar Valley. 

After showing it off, he carefully returned it to the stream in good condition.
I took pictures of sandhill cranes,

green-wing Teals,

Canada geese hanging out on a placid oxbow,

bison,

and pronghorn antelope.  The hills were hazy due to smoke from the fires much of the time, but we had a good experience anyway.

Angler's Trout-Pointing Pal

'Twas a cool but beautiful day on the Green River, below Flaming Gorge Dam and above Little Hole. 

Snow on the boardwalk never stops a fisherman determined to take advantage of the spring Baetis hatch. 

Prepared with a #20 blue quill, about 1 size larger than the naturals, Steve and Daisy cast to a riser.

Fish on!  "I'll bring it in," Daisy volunteers, her tense body pointing at the trout.  "Just let me at it."

"I'm swimming as fast as I can! Which way did it go?"

"Ah, there it is.  Can I touch it?  Please?  I'm sure it wants to play with me."

"It's so interesting and squirmy!  I want it!"

Unfortunately for Daisy, no one kept the brown trout.  Steve let it go to be caught another day.  Unharmed from its brief time on the line, the trout immediately darted off into deep water.

Hellroaring Trailhead

Yellowstone River view

On our second full day, we headed for the Hellroaring Trailhead. 

Fireweed and Groundsel

Harebell

? Duncecap Larkspur ?

We walked about a mile through beautiful wildflowers to the Hellroaring Bridge.

After crossing this suspension bridge over the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone, we hiked upstream along the Yellowstone River to a likely looking fishing spot.  The salmon fly hatch is an important July food supply for cutthroat trout.  The flies are up to 3 inches long.  To the trout, this is a full meal deal. 

The hatch was over in this area and most of the salmon flies were gone, but the fish still showed considerable interest in an imitation. 

This Yellowstone cutthroat trout was one of many that Steve caught and released that day. 

Hiking the 3 miles or so back to the trailhead, we came upon an antler shed by an elk.  We took a photo and left the antler there for the next hiker to find.

Gone Fishin'

We drove to Little Hole for a walk upstream along the Green River toward Flaming Gorge Dam.  This tailwater fishery is known as Section A by those who raft and fish there. 

Ten years ago, we would see hundreds of trout in the clear water as we walked this section of the river. Steve caught and released trout, more or less non-stop, until his casting arm was tired.  In recent years, the fish have been smaller and fewer in number, the mayfly hatches have been less prolific, and algae grows thick on the cobblerock bottom that was once free of  this growth.  Perhaps lower water flow from Flaming Gorge Dam is responsible for the changes, or maybe more fertilizer is being used on fields upstream and is increasing the nitrogen in the water.  I've looked for online information, but I haven't found an explanation.
Still, the Green River provides a beautiful walk any time of year.

Daisy likes to fetch:

And fish. From the moment she sees a fish on the line, she's riveted: 

She likes to see her fish up close and watch them wiggle.  This one was a rainbow trout.  She gave it a good sniff:

When the trout was back in the water, Daisy wished it would hang around and play for awhile, but it rudely swam away.

 All of us were content with our six mile walk along the water.