Broad river valley known for exceptional wildlife viewing opportunities, featuring expansive grasslands, wetlands, and frequent sightings of bison, elk, bears, and other native animals.
General Information
Private Vehicle: $35 (7-day pass)
Motorcycle: $30 (7-day pass)
Individual (walk-in, bicycle): $20 (7-day pass)
How to Get There
From West Yellowstone (44 mi): Enter Yellowstone National Park through the West Entrance on US-20 E, continue east to Madison Junction, follow the Grand Loop Road through Norris and Canyon Village, then head south toward the valley overlooks along the Yellowstone River.
Hayden Valley is a large, sub-alpine valley straddling the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone Lake. The valley floor along the river is an ancient lake bed from a time when Yellowstone Lake was much larger. The valley is well known as one of the best locations to view wildlife in Yellowstone.
The Hayden valley, centrally located in Yellowstone National Park, is approximately 7 miles (11 km) long north to south and 7 miles (11 km) wide east to west and occupies about 50 square miles (130 km2) of the park. It lies mostly to the west of the Yellowstone River between Canyon and Yellowstone Lake. The Canyon to Lake section of the Grand Loop Road follows the eastern side of the valley near the river.
The geothermal features that are scattered around the valley are not as impressive as those of the large geyser basins, but were the first to be discovered and described by the early explorers. They include Mud Volcano, Mud Geyser, Sulphur Caldron, and Black Dragon Caldron at the southern end of the valley and Sulphur Spring in the Crater Hills group further north and west of the river.
The Hayden Valley is frequented by buffalo, elk, grizzly bears, coyote, wolves, and a host of smaller mammals and birds. To protect this habitat and prevent disturbing wildlife, the valley is closed to off-trail foot travel. Two trails make the valley accessible for hikers—the Hayden Valley trail and the Mary Mountain trail. The valley trail parallels the river on the eastern side of the valley from Lake to Canyon, while the Mary Mountain trail skirts the northern edge of the valley along Alum Creek on its way to the Canyon-Lake road. All the rivers, creeks and ponds in the valley are closed to fishing,.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hayden Valley", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
