Yellowstone Trip

[kraven700]

Well here we are 6 months later and getting real close to heading out west. Excitement is starting to grow now for sure. We have our stopping points figured out for the trip out and will be meeting the rest of the group early to mid afternoon the day before our first ride to get trail passes and coordinate our route for the next day. None of us are going off trail as most of us our not only older but don't have the machines for off trail. Some decided to ride into the park on the last day (day 4). I'm not one of them.

We did decide to take a guide on the first day to learn the local trails and our way around. Supposed to be a great snow year so far which is awesome. Really looking forward to this.

We rented an Airbnb in Island Park, ID and the rest of the group rented another house in the same town. This (and west yellowstone) will be our base camp for the week. Does anyone have any particular routes, restaurants and any other tips for us?

# 1 MEADOWCREEK Lodge -great stop for lunch- Log cabin restaurant in the woods - located on the trail halfway between Island Park & West Yellowstone (a bit closer to West)

# 2 The PONDS for lunch or dinner in Island Park

# 3 MADISON CROSSING for dinner in West YELLOWSTONE

BEST BREAKFAST in West Yellowstone -RUNNING BEAR PANCAKE HOUSE -they even offer bagged lunch (Including sandwiches & snacks ) for you to take with you for eating out on the trail later in the day

We go to Yellowstone every 2-3 years, sometimes bring our own sleds (24 hour drive for us) sometimes we fly into Bozeman, rent a car & drive down to West & rent long track sleds with guys, or short track sleds with the families. 550 electric start short track sleds are only $ 135 +/- per day (top out at 60 m.p.h. at altitude) at POLARIS WEST across from the DAYS INN in WEST YELLOWSTONE

Rode the park numerous times on our own 2-stroke sleds (pre-2004) and as recently as 2 years ago on excruciating S-L-O-W 35 m.p.h. governed sleds with a tour guide for a group of 10 tourists

I've brought numerous friends to Yellowstone over the years and get a 50/50 like/don't like the park feedback response from them-It's definitely cool to see at least once

A few years back we were touring the park and the guide directed us to pull over to the side of the rather wide trail and allow for the (3) Bison to pass.
A few moments later, I was within arms reach and face to face with a bison, only thing between me and him was the rental sled and have pics .

Now, that's not something you'd be able to experience that up-close out on the trail

IF you do decide to rent a long track sled for a day, HI-MARK rentals in WEST YELLOWSTONE rents SILBER TURBO'd 163" long tracks with 3" paddles and a jug of race gas strapped to the tunnel to be added when re-fueling - Now-those were an absolute BLAST to ride in the powder, just off the groomed trail

I'm sure you'll have a GREAT trip

 

[kraven700]

BISON PICS from inside the Park tour 2018 -I'm having trouble uploading some pics- says the files are too large, while other pics load 1st attempt ????

 

[dfattack]

# 1 MEADOWCREEK Lodge -great stop for lunch- Log cabin restaurant in the woods - located on the trail halfway between Island Park & West Yellowstone (a bit closer to West)

# 2 The PONDS for lunch or dinner in Island Park

# 3 MADISON CROSSING for dinner in West YELLOWSTONE

BEST BREAKFAST in West Yellowstone -RUNNING BEAR PANCAKE HOUSE -they even offer bagged lunch (Including sandwiches & snacks ) for you to take with you for eating out on the trail later in the day

We go to Yellowstone every 2-3 years, sometimes bring our own sleds (24 hour drive for us) sometimes we fly into Bozeman, rent a car & drive down to West & rent long track sleds with guys, or short track sleds with the families. 550 electric start short track sleds are only $ 135 +/- per day (top out at 60 m.p.h. at altitude) at POLARIS WEST across from the DAYS INN in WEST YELLOWSTONE

Rode the park numerous times on our own 2-stroke sleds (pre-2004) and as recently as 2 years ago on excruciating S-L-O-W 35 m.p.h. governed sleds with a tour guide for a group of 10 tourists

I've brought numerous friends to Yellowstone over the years and get a 50/50 like/don't like the park feedback response from them-It's definitely cool to see at least once

A few years back we were touring the park and the guide directed us to pull over to the side of the rather wide trail and allow for the (3) Bison to pass.
A few moments later, I was within arms reach and face to face with a bison, only thing between me and him was the rental sled and have pics .

Now, that's not something you'd be able to experience that up-close out on the trail

IF you do decide to rent a long track sled for a day, HI-MARK rentals in WEST YELLOWSTONE rents SILBER TURBO'd 163" long tracks with 3" paddles and a jug of race gas strapped to the tunnel to be added when re-fueling - Now-those were an absolute BLAST to ride in the powder, just off the groomed trail

I'm sure you'll have a GREAT trip

All great info. Thank you.

 

[kevinj]

Curious to hear about your trip. My group just returned on Monday from Island Park. We stayed at an Airbnb house called the "West Yellowstone Cabin". we rented 600 EFI Renegades from an affiliated rental place to the airbnb right down the street from the cabin. The sleds did not have heated shield cable ports so we took our own wires and tools and installed them quickly directly to the batteries the first morning. We strictly rode the trails and explored a lot of the area. We stayed more or less local to Island Park due to weather the first day, but still managed 90 miles.

Day 1 - Sawtell and Meadow Creek Trails in the morning. We gassed at Robin's Roost and ate at Island Park Lodge. We had dinner the night before at Connies. In the afternoon we rode down to Ponds and hit the Chick Creek and South Black Canyon Loops Trails to Johnny Sack's Cabin at Big Springs before heading back to the house. (90 miles)

Day 2 - Headed north on the RR Grade Trail and then attempted Two Top in the morning, but at the tree line coming north, we ran into zero visibility so we turned around. We took the Mosquito trail north and then did the Madison Arm and Horse Butte Loops northwest of West Yellowstone. Riding the streets in W.Y. was really interesting. We had lunch at The Buffalo Bar (Really good sandwiches and the service was stellar). With better weather in the afternoon we conquered Two Top from the north. We re-rode the Mosquito and then came back down the eastern Two Top Loop Trail to the BPA Powerline trail. We attempted the North Black Canyon and Black Bear Cutoff trails but they were so rough we turned around and called it a day .(122 miles)

Day 3 - Headed south on the Elk Creek and Last Chance trails - all virgin ribbon. Headed dwon to Mesa Falls - Spectacular views!!! This trail is an open road and even though not freshly groomed still flat. The warm River Trail was used to come back north and that 15 miles was a little rough but we knew the Chick Creek trail was freshly groomed as we had seen the ribbon when we passed the turn off earlier in the day. Well at 11am no one had been on it yet so we ran that to the Chick Creek Flat and back to the Big Springs Warming hut. We doubled down on the Elk Creek Trail which only looked like it had seen our 4 sleds from a few hours previous. We headed west towards Shotgun and then came up the Stamp Meadows Trail. All of this was beautiful. We tried to hit Sawtell again but it had not been groomed so we took the highway trail north back to Meadow Creek again before heading back to return the rental. (117 miles)

This was an awesome experience and we will do it again. There are trails and areas that we did not get to, but I would say we rode the majority of the trails.

 

[dfattack]

We pretty much rode and ate all the places you did. It was simply awesome. Our Airbnb was 5 mins from the Phillips 66 just north of ponds literally right on the trail. I could hear sleds pass by in the middle of the night. I just sorted all the pics last night and kinda re-lived the week. We trailered our sleds out which wasn’t bad at all. Good quality time with my son. Just the two of us so that was good. We work together now so it was good to talk about other stuff instead of work all the time. There were ten of us total, 8 in their house and us two in ours .

Will definitely go back. Maybe not next year but soon. I was thinking about posting about it but honestly haven’t had time.

Thing I learned was that the U.P. And northern wisc trail systems are maintained really well and we are blessed. Grooming out west is NOT every night in fact sometimes maybe once per week. We had some rough trails and some perfect trails. Very hit or miss. Experienced the white out situation coming down from two top as well. In fact the day we rode it a guy from California became separated from his group and they found him a few days later dead. Sad for sure. Kinda pissed me off to be honest. How can you leave ANYONE in your group with conditions like that?

There’s tons more but want to keep it somewhat short