hiking the large Bechler meadows in Yellowstone NP

If you love gigantic meadows, the Bechler area in Yellowstone is the place for you. The problem is getting there, me staying in West Yellowstone takes me about 2 hours to drive to the Bechler Ranger Station, the start of most hikes in that area, which includes the largest falls in the park.

Due to being a drive away from the main areas, like West Yellowstone and Gardiner, many people will skip this area. Also, this is prime backpacking area.

The main attractions in this area are the large waterfalls, best in the park. For my trip, I originally wanted to hike to the Dunanda Falls, but at the time there were trail closures for repairs. The day I went there the closure was not in effect but I already decided to skip the waterfall for this trip and create my own adventure: try crossing as many large meadows as possible, as you can see on my route below.

The Bechler Ranger station is close to the famous area where you can get away with murder (google it, its a fun fact). You will loose cell phone reception when you start getting close, so make sure you have your car’s google map route when you start the trip. I think there is like a 5 mile dirt road for final arrival to the ranger station; do not worry, the dirt road can be travelled by any vehicle.

Once you reach the parking lot, please stop by the ranger station since it serves as the entrance to the park (pay for entrance or use the permit or national parks pass).

The trailhead is located further in, past the horse stables. You parked in the lower right corner and then walk to point (2).

Now, this is important ……….. this area is flooded until early September and when I mean flooded, it is the meadows. Do not try to hike it early because a flooded meadow also means MOSQUITOS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The start of the hike is in a forested area, very tranquil:

You start getting peaks at meadows, this one a little one before you eventually leave the forest:

But this day I was lucky, I am very good at sounds and movements around me: I HAVE TO, since I hike alone and there are many sounds that I have registered in my mind as not to jump from fear when something makes a noise. This time it was movement in the trees above me and it was a treat: a pine marten.

The sounds these critters make is like it is always mad, lots of grunts. This guy knew I was there, but he didn’t care. He would once in a while take a peek at me and then continue what I think was him looking down looking where his next prey was coming from ……….. these assholes are carnivores:

You leave the forest and get into the first large meadow and I loved it !!!

You can see from the satellite image below the large meadow areas on both the in and out trails:

There are a couple of creek crossing in this area: (1) and (2). I am pretty sure that there was no drawbridge in one of the two areas, I clearly remember taking off my socks to cross a very small creek.

Once I crossed the second creek, the meadow is left behind and I am hiking next to a creek. Funny story: I ran into a guy fishing on the creek and he stops me and asks me to look at a far corner of the creek and tell him if there is a bear there (WTF!!!!!!!). I carry with me a scope so I take it out and it is just a large tree branch, you could not see it with the naked eye but there was no way it would be a bear since it never moved. Poor guy was being paranoid. Beside the pine marten, I saw no wildlife that day.

You then reach a connector trail going East and I took it instead of continuing towards the falls. The connector trail is forested and I ran into a couple of groups on horseback (pretty cool).

You then are going back to meadows and hit another Y: to the left you can get to Colonnade Falls, I took the right and stayed on the meadow. Since now I was hiking south, I got a peak of the Tetons:

The meadows are large and expansive, I just loved it:

Then you are going to finally exit the meadow and cross a creek, this time with a nice bridge:

Instead of taking the direct route to the trailhead (the Bechler River trail at (1)), I decided to make the loop longer and go on the trail that hugs the proper Bechler River.

The trail always hugs the river and the sounds of a large river are great to the ear:

I skipped going to the Bechler falls, I suspect there were not going to be spectacular:

I arrived to the trailhead and even though the hike took me 15 miles, it was not tiring at all. I just knew two hours of driving were ahead of me.

This area is magical for meadows and I will come back to explore all the falls, which due to the distances it needs two trips (Colonnade and Dunanda).