Trails of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park has over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of blazed and mapped hiking trails, including some that have been in use for hundreds of years. Several of these trails were the sites of historical events. Yellowstone's trails are noted for various geysers, hot springs, and other geothermal features, and for viewing of bald eagles, ospreys, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk.
In the Middle Prehistoric era, humans appear to have continued living in mountain areas through droughts severe enough for plains populations to disappear. Evidence suggests that the Yellowstone Plateau was occupied continuously, with seasonal movement among preferred places. Foragers wintered in protected valleys along the edges of the plateau, and summered in higher hunting grounds that might have extended fifty to a hundred miles away. Some of the seasonal routes developed into often-used trails. Artifacts from this era are found throughout the park, with large enough concentrations around Yellowstone Lake to suggest a substantial population.
John Colter (or Coulter), a former member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, spent the winter of 1806-1807 trapping along the middle Yellowstone River. With the information he learned there, he was hired by the Missouri Fur Trading Company to invite Indian tribes to the trading post the company built at the mouth of the Big Horn River in October 1807. In the winter of 1807-1808, soliciting trade with the Crow and other native tribes, Colter traveled alone on a 500 miles (800 km) route that included the Yellowstone Plateau, making him the first white man to see Yellowstone Lake and some of the area's unique features. Colter's route included Indian trails both inside and outside the current park, such as over Pryor Gap near Cody, Wyoming; around the west shore of Yellowstone Lake and down Yellowstone River to the crossing near Tower Fall (a geothermal area on the east bank is "Hot Spring Brimstone" on Clark's map); and continuing up Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek and Clarks Fork to return to the Pryor Gap trail.
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