Snowmobile trails near Yellowstone NP--from West Yellowstone, MT

A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.
We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John

I for one support the 'lunatic' judge.

There are fewer and fewer places on this earth where one can go and
enjoy near silence -- hearing only the sounds of nature like wind softly
blowing through the pines, or the call of hawk or eagle. This is exactly
the kind of sanctuary that National Parks were intended for when they
were first created.

Surely there must be plenty of other places to enjoy your snowmobiles
outside of the National Parks?

I hope you enjoy your outing. Take plenty of photos!

steve




John wrote:
A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.
We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John

I for one support the 'lunatic' judge.

There are fewer and fewer places on this earth where one can go and
enjoy near silence -- hearing only the sounds of nature like wind softly
blowing through the pines, or the call of hawk or eagle. This is exactly
the kind of sanctuary that National Parks were intended for when they
were first created.

Surely there must be plenty of other places to enjoy your snowmobiles
outside of the National Parks?

I hope you enjoy your outing. Take plenty of photos!

steve




John wrote:
A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.
We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John


Agreed that snowmobiling is totally inappropriate in national parks.
Fortunately for you there are millions of acres of national forest
where you can take all that noise.
---
David Meiland
Friday Harbor, WA
http://davidmeiland.com/

**Check the reply address before sending mail

In message
(John) wrote:

A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...
It could hardly have been a surprise, given that the rangers were
campaigning about it at least as far back as when they were there July '01?

I thought they presented a pretty convincing case.....

Liz
--
Virtual Liz at http://www.v-liz.co.uk
Kenya; Tanzania; India; Seychelles
New Aug '03: Namibia
"I speak of Africa and golden joys"

What are the restrictions now ? heard something about a snow coach or
special snowmobiles ?
Gary
http://www.xit.net/gll

"David Meiland" wrote in message
...
I for one support the 'lunatic' judge.

There are fewer and fewer places on this earth where one can go and
enjoy near silence -- hearing only the sounds of nature like wind softly
blowing through the pines, or the call of hawk or eagle. This is exactly
the kind of sanctuary that National Parks were intended for when they
were first created.

Surely there must be plenty of other places to enjoy your snowmobiles
outside of the National Parks?

I hope you enjoy your outing. Take plenty of photos!

steve




John wrote:
A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.
We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John


Agreed that snowmobiling is totally inappropriate in national parks.
Fortunately for you there are millions of acres of national forest
where you can take all that noise.
---
David Meiland
Friday Harbor, WA
http://davidmeiland.com/

**Check the reply address before sending mail

Liz,
Before I visited Yellowstone in the winter I would have agreed with
you just on general principles.
However, a couple of points with which I was unfamiliar when I made
my first visit a few years ago:
Yellowstone is the size of Delaware...the only practical
'noiseless' activities in the winter are walking (very difficult) or
snowshoeing/cross-country skiing. Cross-country skiing is allowed but
those travelers can experience perhaps 1/100th of one percent of the
park that way.
Also, myself and everyone with me regularly asked the park rangers
what they thought of proposed snowmobile bans and/or compromises.
Without exception the rangers took a 'no one really knows what effect,
if any, snowmobiling has on the animals' position. Stress on animals
is difficult if not impossible to quantify--does grooming the roads
make it easier for animals to perhaps leave the park and get into
trouble? Do groomed roads simply make it easier for animals such as
bison to move around the park searching for food?
Like many complex situations, this one has been examined in various
'studies' and 'reports,' with each side, I feel, selectively
emphasizing data which supports its argument and selectively ignoring
that which does not.
I can say from experience that the newer four-stroke snowmobiles
are a big improvement. The two-strokes are a joke--we had to
completely refill the oil reservoir every second day. The
four-strokes are a long way from silence but they are an order of
magnitude better than the two-strokes. There are indeed (I am told)
cross-country skiers who miss out on abolute silence. The flip side
is that hundreds more people (per day) can enjoy the park--and more of
the park--than can by skiing. Like all national parks, Yellowstone
must balance protection of the national resources there with the
notion that the park is 'for the people.' As for silence, should cars
be banned in the summer because they make noise (a snowmobile is
admittedly noisier)? Should the park in summer only be open to
pedestrians and bicyclists? Before you scoff, reflect that a visitor
could actually visit far more of the park by bicycle in a single day
than any skier ever could. Winter silence is admittedly a lovely
thing--however the people who would be present in the park to enjoy
that silence would typically be near zero.
A lot of the debate has centered around pollution. The logic of
this escapes me...I must believe that more fumes and other gaseous
crap is released into Yellowstone on a single summer day (when the
park is depressingly clogged with RV's, SUV's, and cars) than in many
weeks of winter traffic. I would bet a lot of money that
gas-emissions-wise the busiest summer week generates more pollution
than the entire winter season. Propose a ban on those big, smelly,
slow RV's--the size of buses despite the fact that they carry a small
handful of people--then talk to me about snowmobiles.
My experience has been that many people doing their 'victory dance'
over judge what's-his-name's decision have never themselves been to
Yellowstone in the winter. It is astonishingly beautiful. One of my
favorite moments was heading back to the entrance near sunset--flying
along (observing, of course, the 45mph speed-limit) for over 15 miles
without seeing another human being. Another was catching a coyote
pilfer some kind of package from the back of a snowmobile's small
trailer and run off with it. Five hundred to 1000 people a day may
seem like a lot--but the total road coverage is several hundred miles,
and many people are in the park only for a few hours. Even with
hundreds of people per day present, you can still feel like the park
belongs just to you...you can get that feeling in the summer, but it's
a damned sight harder and you have to hike a long way for it.
Like most situations, the realities of winter activity there are
far more complex, subtle, and 'gray' than the philosophical,
black-and-white abstractions of people who've never been anywhere near
there in winter.
Finally, previous comments included these:
Surely there must be plenty of other places to enjoy your snowmobiles
outside of the National Parks?

and
Fortunately for you there are millions of acres of national forest
where you can take all that noise.

For anyone who has read this far and cares to examine my original
post, the only purpose of it was not to raise controversy but to
determine where these 'other places I might enjoy my snowmobile' in
national forest land might be. I would still be grateful for that
information from anyone familiar with the area. Regards,
John

John wrote:

A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.

I'm afraid I agree with many of the others. The things have no place in
Yellowstone.

We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John

I don't believe there are any restrictions in Grand Teton NP, from
nps.gov:

"Snowmobiling is permitted within the park on the Continental Divide
Snowmobile Trail (CDST) and the Grassy Lake Road, when conditions
permit. The CDST follows US Highway 287 from the eastern park
boundary, through Moran to the north park boundary, and continues past
Flagg Ranch all the way to the south entrance of Yellowstone (see the
map
on page 8). Use of biodegradable motor oil and improved snowmobile
technology such as 4-stoke engines is encouraged to reduce environmental
impacts. Check at entrance stations, the Moose Visitor Center
(yearround),
or the Flagg Ranch Information Station (mid-December to mid-
March) for regulations and safety information before operating a
snowmobile on the CDST. Call (307) 739-3614 for CDST conditions
within the park. Call (800) 225-5996 for information on snowmobile
trails throughout Wyoming."

You might want to call ahead and make sure there actually is enough snow
on the ground for snowmobiling. We've had several very dry winters in a
row. I haven't been up that way since July, so I can't say first hand,
the webcam at Teton Village looks like it's okay once you get a little
higher up on the mountain. Most folks around here (Rock Springs) don't
go to the parks for snowmobiling, they head up to areas around Pinedale.
You can try that 800 number listed for trails, also the Jackson Chamber
of Commerce is usually pretty helpful:
307-733-3316
http://www.jacksonholechamber.com/

might want to look at this one, this one has the webcams:
http://www.JacksonHoleWY.net/


--
Angela M. Cable
PSP8 Private Beta Tester

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Just one observation. The less you travel, the more you see. It might
also be said that the less noise you make, the more you can observe. That
is why I like snowshoes.

PSsquare

"John" wrote in message
om...
A friend and I were all set for a one-week self-guided trip via
snowmobile through Yellowstone NP. Thanks to a lunatic judge and a
last-second ruling that's all thrown into chaos...but I digress.
We are going to make the trip anyway and try to make the best of it.
We'll be based in West Yellowstone, MT and will _not_ have a car or
truck at our disposal--the sleds only. For certain we will be
spending some time in the Gallatin National Forest--it's the west
Hebgen district, I believe.
But there are a lot of trails there...
Can anyone recommend some of the more photogenic trails or any other
'do not miss' spots? I'd appreciate any help, since good suggestions
may help defray some of the disappointment due to the recent judicial
ruling curtailing snowmobile activity inside the park. Thank you,
John

John,

You have a few good points in there, but still I applaud the decision. I
have had the "pleasure" of visiting Yellowstone in the winter, and it was
not much pleasure at all.
If nothing else, consider this: the animals have a hard enough time getting
through the harsh winter without having to put up with crowds - they are bad
enough in the summer. I think they should have a chance to have "piece and
quiet" at least part of the year.

To answer your question, I don't know any specific trails, but I remember
having seen a lot of snowmobilers having a good time just west of West
Yellowstone, on what looked like groomed trails. The area is beautiful
everywhere, so I am sure that you will find places to enjoy. I would ask the
locals about specific locations when you are there.

Judy

Could you explain how it actually works in Jellystone? You mentioned
trails, grooming, and speed limits. Are (were) snowmobiles restricted to
roads and trails? How much off-trail activity is there? Is "grooming"
just frequent traffic?

--
- Alan Justice