TR: YellowStone/Teton adventure 2015

[tomitrout]

First, thanks again for all the tips and advice, it was one hell of a trip...

Day 0:
Driving into the storm, north from Idaho Falls:

Pot of gold down there in West Yellowstone:

The quiver; 8'/5wt, two 7.5'/5wts, 8'8"/4wt.

Day 1: Gibbon River. Started up high hoping for a random Grayling, picked up the eastern slam instead, a decent brown, then a rainbow and plenty of brookies. Moved down river mostly just to hike up into the base of the falls, neat place to be.

Either Gibbon Meadows or Elk Park...don't recall exactly.

Start point

Made friends with this guy

That crazy rock

The Falls

Buffalo along the Madison

Day 2: Started early to chase the sunrise, then took a little stroll down to 7 Mile Hole on the Yellowstone, amazing.

Sunrise over Washburn

Time to drop down to the river

Fish of the day, pushing 20"

One last look over the shoulder

Scenery

Bull Elk popped out for little evening snack, Gibbon Meadows

Day 3: Gallatin River, drove north from town to check out the Gallatin. Nice looking water there in the park, fished about 2 miles of her picking up some 'bows here and there and moved some nicer fish out from under the banks. Tough day numbers wise, but relaxing after the long walk the day before.

Starting spot

Life cycle

Subby rental ad copy

Anonymous fisherfella

More soon, need to process the pics from the second half..

 

[afishinado]

Wow TT.....absolutely gorgeous pics!

I just got back from there a week and half ago. We rented a cabin in Paradise Valley and fished the Yellowstone (right out my back deck) as well as the Madison. While driving through the Park, I added taking a few days to fish the water in the Park to my bucket list. You did just that...nice!

Thanks again for the great pics.

Edit: Oh, BTW, for all you guys on here for a while. I floated the Yellowstone with Jayl in his new drift boat. He's doing great and says "Hey" to all. He's thinking about maybe showing up for next year's Jam.

 

[RCFetter]

Great report and those pics are outstanding. Looking forward to the additional photos.

 

[McSneek]

Outstanding!

 

[jay348]

afishinado wrote:
Wow TT.....absolutely gorgeous pics!
quote]

This. Awesome report!

 

[Chaz]

You had much better weather than I did when I was there. Great pics.

 

[steveo27]

Fantastic write up and pics!

 

[STONEMAN]

Heading there Friday. Can't wait!

 

[boychick]

Those are some excellent photos. Glad you had a great trip. I'm looking forward to the next installment. Man, I love Yellowstone country!

 

[AFISHN]

Great pics and report.Brought back a lot of wonderful memeories.
BTW:That picture"The Falls" is off the charts beautiful!!!!

 

[troutpoop]

Looks Great! Looking forward to the rest of the pics.

 

[tomitrout]

ahhh, thanks guys, trip was amazing in many ways.

Yeah, definitely had good weather, an afternoon shower here or there and some rain Saturday morning, which was fine, allowed for an extra cup of coffee before heading out...otherwise, sunshine & 70's for the most part...though the afternoon winds could be a hassle.

So onward...

Wednesday, Day 4: Travel down to Jackson. I heard there was a big lake somewhere in the middle of Yellowstone, so I figured I drive the shoreline, it did not disappoint.

Hayden Valley:

Sulphur Cauldron nastiness:

Little bit of wind on the water:

A random pelican:

Home for the next few days:

Day 5: Drove thru downtown Jackson the evening before, bit of culture shock after being in a 4 day bubble. Picked up my WY license, some flies and bit of location beta for the Snake from High Country flies, nice little shop. Settled on working the area around Deadman's Bar, good choice.

Took a couple snapshots at the Blacktail Ponds overlook:

Snake River Overlook, later in the day I made it down to the point of that bar in the river for lunch.

First Snake River cutty to hand, HUDGE! Next fish I hooked into took me under a log, hit the main current and began ripping off line like I couldn't believe. The fish in this river are deceptively strong, gonna be a fun day.

That's more like it:

Passersby:

Jenny Lake:

Random Peak, don't recall which one:

Day 6: Was thinking about hiking up into Cascade Canyon, decided to just fish the Snake again. Hiking down into 7 Mile Hole a few day's prior was pretty much enough for me on this trip. So dropped down into Sawbacher Landing to check it out, liked what I found.

First, breakfast with a view from the chuckwagon:

The beaverponds make for some nice scenery:

The fishing was decent again:

Moved upstream to the Pacific Creek Access, popular spot for wading apparently, but still hooked up:

Then the afternoon showers rolled in, chased scenery until sunset:

Day 7: Having been up down and around the Snake, decided to explore elsewhere, Gross Ventre River area sounded interesting for some sight seeing.

First, finally tried to take a qwik pic of one of the bears that's been hanging out along the Wilson Rd.

Morman Row barns were neat:

Gross Ventre Valley, looking up towards the slide...that must've been a crazy event!

Did a bit of fishin' along this stretch:

More sightseeing, scenery chasing:

Day 8: Travel home, slummy day in the airports, but did see a moose driving up over Teton Pass on the way out, so that was neat.

Thanks for looking!

 

[bikerfish]

awesome pics! can't wait to get back out west! Now you have me looking at maps!
BTW, I've done the hike up into cascade canyon, a bit steep at the beginning, but worth the effort, a magical place that few people take the effort to see. we had a bunch of people at the start of the trail, but no one else made it up into the meadows with us.

 

[1fish]

tomitrout wrote:
Day 8: Travel home, slummy day in the airports, but did see a moose driving up over Teton Pass on the way out, so that was neat.
Thanks for looking!

I always see moose when I'm up there, but never one driving. I wish you got a picture of that. Anyway looks like you had a great trip and thanks for posting some great pics.
I'll be headed up that way next week and probably stick around till the weather chases me out.

 

[pete41]

won't admit I'm crying but I miss my great love, Montana- butt time moves on and so did I ,regretfully.Some mighty fine bassing in Florida and Michigan though.My next stop will probably be hotter than hades so I can just dream about the big sky country, too old to do her right ,young buck country.. Nice pictures.

 

[mikesl]

wow, nice pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[streamerguy]

Fantastic photos and fish!!!! Looks like an amazing trip

 

[troutpoop]

I've never been out there but I sure want to go...Bad! I have the vacation time at work but just haven't done it.

Great pics!!

 

[Fishidiot]

Tomi has always been mighty handy with a camera... but I'd say he's finally out done himself.

Thanks for taking us out West - at least vicariously. Beautiful.

 

[dsmith1427]

Great pics. Great write up. Thanks for sharing. I love out west. My three favorite states are Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. They are beautiful places with great people. Before I was married, I went out west twice on vacations by myself but was never lonely... a lot of nice people.