Purple Mountain Trail

At noon on Saturday, I set-off on the first serious dayhike of the vacation. Short jaunts characterize my few excursions on Friday. Finally inside Yellowstone National Park, I parked at the Purple Mountain Trailhead not far from Madison Junction. The three mile trail climbed steadily up to Purple Mountain Peak. Almost without interruption, lodgepole pines flanked the side of the trail. The first half of the hike cut up the foot of the mountain in a straight line—or a least as straight as you'd expect to find in nature-with the sun almost right behind me. The trail steepened as is swung around 180 degrees out a sizable ravine and then leveled of for a bit before climbing the last 1.5 miles to the peak along a series a switchback with fantastic southern views. A lonely hike, I encountered my first fellow-hikers in the last 200 yards of the trail and no one else was present when I reached the overlook at the end of the trail.

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I first noticed smoke from a forest fire off to the southeast. At first, I thought it was a pretty neat sight, then I considered that my planned itinerary for the next day required driving on one open road in that direction. Directly south, I recognized Fountain Flats, the northern extremity of the highest concentration of geysers in the park and my next destination following the hike. Even though the views were great, I didn't tarry long before starting the return hike. I went fast enough to catch the hikers I met just before reaching the summit. Back at the car I had a pretty long chat with one of them while reapplying sunscreen.


Purple Mountain from Terrace Spring. Lighting changes during the day and season so the explorers probably saw purple mountain when the named it.


Arnica Fire as seen from Purple Mountain. I lightning strike started this fire a few days before my visit.

Firehole Valley. The loop road climbs along side the Firehole River. The main geyser area is just over the horizon.

The true summit of Purple Mountain. Yes I did climb it.

On the descent. The forest fire is visible just to the right of the trees in the center of the picture.

Gibbon Meadows. The mineral rich water that flows from Terrace Spring (where I took the top photo and visible in the lower left) and other sources prevents vegetation from growing in the broad swath on the banks of the Gibbon River.

Trip Statistics
Length: 6.5 miles
Time: 2 hours 57 minutes
Elevation Change: 1,500 feet
Max. Elevation: 8,433 feet