Yellowstone NP, WY – The western portion of the Mary Mountain Trail travels along the scenic Nez Perce Creek. The entire Mary Mountain Trail travels 20 miles from the Old Faithful-Madison Road to the Canyon-Lake Road. This is a long shuttle hike with no option for camping overnight as there are no campsites due to the density of the grizzly bear population in this region. We opted to day hike the western section of the Mary Mountain Trail during this trip. This hike is included in Bill Schneider’s Falcon Guide: Hiking Yellowstone National Park- A Guide to More than 100 Great Hikes.

The Nez Perce Creek is named to remember the flight of the Nez Perce Native Americans through Yellowstone National Park between August 20 and Sept 7, during the Nez Perce War in 1877. As the U.S. army pursued the Nez Perce through the park, a number of hostile and sometimes deadly encounters between park visitors and the Native Americans occurred. Eventually, the army’s pursuit forced the Nez Perce off the Yellowstone plateau and into forces arrayed to capture or destroy them when they emerged from the mountains of Yellowstone onto the valley of Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River. For more information about the Nez Perce War, Kent Nerburn has written “Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy”.

An early section of the trail

We started from the western trailhead, a paved pullout located on the Old Faithful-Madison Road, 6.5 miles south of the Madison junction or 9.5 miles north of Old Faithful on the eastern side of the road. The trail starts as a double track winding through an open meadow past some thermal areas. The trail alternates with some forest sections, but has a good amount of open meadows. We spotted some Sandhill Cranes in the first meadow.

A Sandhill Crane

The trail travels along Nez Perce Creek

The trail travels at varying distances from the Nez Perce Creek which is known for trout fishing (Rainbows and Browns) and is popular with fishermen. The trail is fairly easy to follow and does not have much elevation gain over the first 6 miles. After Cowan Creek the trail climbs about 900 feet on its way to Mary Lake. Watch for side trails made by bison which can sometimes look as well trodden as the actual trail. The trail is marked with orange markers on trees and brown metal posts, though the posts are often knocked over by bison using them for scratching posts.

Another section of Nez Perce Creek and the trail

Pine forest section of the Mary Mountain Trail

We traveled about 4.5 miles along the Mary Mountain Trail on this hike for a round trip of 9 miles. We are impressed by the amount of open meadow space that is intermixed with forest as you travel further back the trail. The Nez Perce Creek is an intermittent companion, with some trail sections walking right along the creek and others having only glimpses through the trees. This is known to be a good area for wildlife, On a previous hike we encountered bison on the trail, but not on this trip. We saw lots of animal sign including prints for bison, elk, and wolves. This was a great hike. Make sure you are comfortable with Bear Safety in the backcountry before hiking here.

One of many meadow areas along the trail

Watch for bison, these were in a different part of the park

Nez Perce Creek

Watch for wildlife in the meadows

While visiting Yellowstone National Park this trip, we stayed at the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, Montana. We also hiked a number of other trails including:

• Riddle Lake
• Chain of Lakes (Cascade, Grebe, and Wolf)
• Gneiss Creek
• Fawn Pass/Fan Creek
• Rescue Creek
• Pebble Creek
• Upper Gallatin River/ Bighorn Pass Trail
• Black Canyon of Yellowstone River Backpack (Hellroaring Creek, Yellowstone River Trail, Blacktail Deer Creek Trail)

During prior trips to Yellowstone we’ve also hiked:

• Artist Paintpots, Yellowstone River Picnic Area/Specimen Ridge, Rescue Creek, Trout Lake, Slough Creek, Beaver Ponds, Hellroaring Creek, Mary Mountain Trail, Pelican Creek, Fairy Falls
• Mount Washburn, Bunsen Peak, and Elephant Back
• Garnett Hill Loop, Pelican Valley, Snow Mesa/Hoodoos Loop, Lonestar Geyser, Clear Lake/Ribbon Lake/Wapiti Loop