hiking the Boundary trail along the Snake River in Yellowstone NP
The segment of the Boundary trail that runs along the Snake River is a mostly backpacking route that can take you to a lot of places, including Heart Lake. You can see below the options, the start is at the bottom left of the topo map.
For me, I wanted to accomplish two things: cross a river and reach a backcountry thermal area. The route that I highlighted below is about 6 miles in and then back:
The trailhead starts at a picnic area immediately upon entering the park from the south entrance. After the entrance you immediately take a right and enter it. There are benches where people can rest:
For safety you need to do this hike later in the year when the Snake River is easily crossed; I did this in September. It is very well signed where I need to cross the river and the water level was at my knee at the deepest. Current was slow, so this was no problem at all.
The first feature that you reach once you cross the river and enter a short forested area is a meadow that you cross before entering a long forested area. The topo map showed a thermal area off trail, but I decided not to explore it.
Soon enough I realized what most day hikers would be doing on this trail. In front of me there was a group of four guys that left the trail to go fishing at the river; clarification: all of a sudden they disappeared from the trail when I was gaining on them and then I heard them off trail so it made sense they went fishing when another couple did the same and I saw them with fishing gear.
For the next I want to say 4 miles the trail is incredibly boring since it stays inside a forested area and you get no views of the river at all. You just need to persevere and hope that the destination will be worth it …………. spoilers: it is !!!
You leave the forest and enter a large meadow with the river on the other side of the meadow. You immediately cross a creek over a small wooden bridge.
Look at this view, nice !!! I took it from the small bridge. I ran into a group of backpackers leaving the area at this point.
I mean, I love meadows and this one did not disappoint at all:
This creek is not the river, but a creek that is being fed by the large thermal area further down the trail. The water is quite hot and you can clearly see the smoke from the heat.
Eventually the river reveals itself and there is a small bench that gives you some elevation for nice pics of the Snake river.
I noticed something ………….. the video below shows where the creek that has the thermal flow meets the river and you can clearly see those rocks creating a small pool. It is obviously man-made.
I want to say that the image below is of the actual Snake Hot Springs, but I can’t be certain. You can clearly see a meadow that is the source of the hot springs but the meadow is wet and there is no way to know if your footing is safe. I got as close as safely as I could; remember, I was hiking along and I do not take risks for the hell of it.
A closer video of the “pool”:
Looking back from the bench …………
Once I hiked past the thermal springs, the trail enters a forested area and you can take two paths to continue. I decided I was done for the day, I realized I was going back into a forested area and that is not my cup of tea.
I am happy I hiked this trail, this is one of those trails that are all about the destination. I didn’t look at the satellite map of that meadow so I was surprised how pretty it was. Again, all I saw were backpackers or people going to fish at the river.
