Name: Cascade Creek Trail
Rating: 2.7

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Dogs No Dogs

Features River/Creek · Wildflowers · Wildlife

This is in prime grizzly habitat, so check for closures or restrictions before you begin. Buffalo also frequent the area. Keep your distance - the NPS recommends staying at least 25 yards away from buffalo and 100 away from bears. Mosquitos are scary-bad here too, usually until August.

Description

This trail begins on the Norris to Canyon Road, just west of Canyon Village, and ends at a junction with the Cascade Lake Trail about a mile east of Cascade Lake. Most visitors headed to the lake take the Cascade Lake Trail, rather than this trail, because it's about a 1/2 mile shorter and the scenery is at least as good.

The trail leaves the road and heads north across a small meadow, then climbs 50 feet into the forest. The trail parallels Cascade Creek (on your right), the outlet creek from Cascade Lake, but for most of the way it is out of view. It nears the creek at the .9 mile mark, and thereafter skirts the pretty meadow through which Cascade Creek flows. You'll not find any “cascades” along this stretch of Cascade Creek. It was actually named for the lovely 129-foot Crystal Falls a few miles down stream where the creek flows into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone between Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls.

The trail ends at a junction with the Cascade Lake Trail. To reach the lake, turn left and continue on for another mile.

Thanks to guidebook author, Tom Carter, for sharing this trail description. To learn more about visiting Yellowstone, check out his book, Day Hiking Yellowstone.