Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
0.8/20.2
Side road to the
Mammoth Horse Corrals
at the east. Horses may be hired
through the park concessionaire for escorted one-hour rides during the summer months. Ar-
rangements can be made at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel or at the corrals.
There was a lodge and campground in this valley many years ago, and an enclosure where
bison were confined during the summer. This show herd assured early twentieth century tour-
ists on the Grand Tour that they would see some of the then-rare beasts.
Also down this road near the corral office is the military cemetery, where soldiers and oth-
ers who died at Mammoth were buried from 1888 to 1957. Many of the remains and grave-
stones were removed by the military in 1917 to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
(then called the Custer Battlefield). About 40 graves remain.
1.3/19.7
At the sharpest angle of the hairpin curve in the Grand Loop Road is the entrance to
a side road to a service area with employee housing and a privately sponsored summer camp
called the Youth Conservation Corps, for young people who do resource management and
trail work.
From 1933 to 1941, this area housed the headquarters for the local Civilian Conservation
Corps. The C.C.C. was a large project of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, during
which men aged 17 to 28 were recruited throughout the country to build and maintain roads,
bridges, trails, and campgrounds, fight fires, and stock fish, while learning valuable skills and
often supporting destitute families.
A steep hike on the former
Bunsen Peak Road
starts in the residential area here. To loc-
ate the trailhead, turn left at the Truck Route sign and watch for a closed-off road with a trail
sign on your left. Please respect local residents and park as well out of the way as possible. An
easier approach to this trail down to the Gardner Canyon and Osprey Falls starts near Rustic
Falls, described at mile 4.8/16.2 on this stretch of the Grand Loop Road.
A short trail (really a road, used as a ski trail in winter) beginning at the end of the
maintenance yard leads to little Joffe Lake, which has some small brook trout.
The hill between the residential area and Upper Terrace Drive has traditionally been called
Formation Hill,
since it leads to the main formation or terrace.
Centuries of Terrace Building
A descending series of travertine terraces passes through the Mammoth Hot Springs area
from southwest to northeast, like huge stair steps. The oldest now-inactive terrace, Terrace
Mountain, is the farthest to the southwest, about 2 miles southwest of Mammoth; while the
