Nighttime in Rescue Creek. An excellent site, 1A2 has a great little stream tumbling down from the ridge that runs right by the cook site. As with many of the nights on this trip to Yellowstone, I slept little, being entertained by the constant bedlam of the elk rut. There are few things that I enjoy more than settling down by a good fire in wild country with a good book. On this trip, I had plenty of time for that, since sleep was often out of the question.

Final thoughts on Rescue Creek: This trail and campsite gets surprisingly little use, especially considering the fairly easy access from the Blacktail Creek trailhead. I think that like many of the great spots that I've stayed at in Yellowstone, Rescue Creek benefits tremendously from the presence of the Grizzly. I saw little bear sign in the area while I was there, but it was late in the season and the Griz tends to be found at higher elevations at this time of year. However, the one thing that you can count on (as I learned earlier in the trip at Shoshone Lake) is that the great bear will turn up when you least expect it. The site was spotless, with absolutely no trash or food scraps to be found in the area. Somebody had collected a huge pile of racks and skulls, piling them around the cooking area. The skull below made a fine 'table' for my book and coffee mug.

One of the highlights of this trail is the wide variety of terrain that it passes through in a fairly short distance (8 miles) Starting from the bottom near Gardiner, you walk through a near desert, but soon climb into a rich grassland with dense forest on the nearby ridges. There are no high mountains, but the long low ridges are colorful and invite the passing hiker to take time to scramble up for a view of the northern range. It's going into my A-list of backcountry destinations in Yellowstone.