Yellowstone National Park - Part 2: Slough Creek: Where Dreams Come True

That’s right Dave caught 30 trout in our 3 days here at Slough Creek.  You are sure to hear all about it when we get back – but I thought I might as well tell you about it to start and get it over with.  He would catch one of these big Yellowstone Cutthroat Trouts each day we were there.  Two of them were at least 20 inches and one was 18 inches.  The one shown above was especially meaningful to Dave as it was his first, his biggest, and he caught it right in front of the whole family, (except me – funny how I wasn’t invited on this fishing expedition).  In fact, everyone participated in the catch in some way.  Dave caught it with Anika’s fly rod, Caleb netted it for him, and Kirsten took the picture.  This was a realized dream for Dave.

We met up with Tayler and his fiancee.  He was kind enough to have camera in hand when Dave was fishing with him.  He took these great shots of Dave catching 2 more large cutthroat trout.


Taylor was newly hired by the Yellowstone National Park Service Fish and Game Department.  Here he is fishing Slough Creek.

And here is one more of Dave's big "cuts":

Pretty remarkable that Dave would catch 3 large cutthroat trout and have all of them so beautifully captured on film.  Thanks Kirsten and Taylor!

Our first dream came true when we first arrived at the campground and realized that this already small campground, less than 30 sites, was even smaller this year because a few of the sites had been washed away by the Buffalo River which met up with Slough Creek here.  But, my family’s dreams would come true, again, and they would get the best site in the place, right on the river.

It really was a beautiful site.  Dave would catch many of his fish within 30 yards of our camper. 

Dave would spend a lot of time fishing this beautiful river.  He would catch mostly Rainbow Trout from 8” to 14” in size.  And did I mention he caught 30 of them in 3 days? (Dave made me put that in there again.) He had been advised by many on the other rivers to fish in the area.  But, why go elsewhere when you are having this kind of luck?

What was also interesting is that we would watch many fisherman come to the river and get skunked.  (In layman’s terms:  “not catch fish”.)  Not this family.  The kids caught some nice little rainbow trout too.

And then there was Dave’s dream of seeing a bear.  In all of his time spent in the woods, he had never seen one in the wild.  Well, he would realize this dream as well.  In fact, he says he had the perfect bear encounters.  The first was when Caleb and Dave hiked up a hill in the Hayden Valley of the park and a group of animal spotters would let Caleb and Dave use their spotting scopes to see their first grizzly bear almost ½ mile away.  Caleb spotted the mother and cub just before they went over the back of a hill.  Dave would just see the mother – but both had seen this notoriously dangerous creature from a safe distance.

But, what about the rest of the family?  Most importantly what about me?  I wanted to see this creature that is my distant relative and a canine of the same color.  I really wanted to see a black bear.  Not to worry.  The family had been told that a black bear had walked right in back of their campsite just a few days before.  So, while Dave fished...again, near the campsite, Kirsten would call to him that this big black bear was right behind him. 

 

After I got a peak, I was ushered into the camper.  But, the rest of the family got to watch as he would wander right in back of their campsite, as promised.  By the way that is Dave's boxers hanging on the clothes line near their bear box.

He never even looked towards them.  He would dig at a nearby stump for ants and then just keep walking up the hill.  A close but safe encounter with a bear for the whole family.

And, as for Caleb and his wish to see a wolf.  Yes, that dream would come true too.  He had been given the tip that if they were out in the Lamar Valley and spotted a yellow XTerra SUV, to pull over as that was one of the park rangers that tracks the wolves in the park.  So, Dave and Caleb drove out in to this wide open valley on their last evening there.  They would be rewarded to start with a beautiful and unusual sunset.

They would spot the largest herd of bison they had ever seen, with over 800 of the beasts.  And, sure enough they would spot the yellow XTerra.  This ranger would lower his spotting scope for Caleb to see his first wolf.  And, it was his favorite color wolf too, black of course!  All the finest canine creatures are wearing black these days!

And finally, Anika and Caleb had one of their childhood dreams come true when they found a mud hole along the river that Kirsten and Dave allowed them to roll around in.  Oh the joy of getting truly muddy.  Unfortunately, Caleb did get a little exuberant with his jumping into the mud hole and broke his lttle toe.  But, nothing a little duct tape couldn't help.

Slough Creek was truly a place where dreams come true.  I’ll write again from Montana, where Dave and the kids will probably be fishing again...

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”