Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of 1877. Their name means “pierced nose” in French, but tribal members had stopped pier-
cing their noses by the 1830s.
6.1/10.9
Nez Perce Creek bridge. The road enters a broad meadow, Fountain Flats, where elk
can oten be seen.
Nez Perce Creek
was first called the East Fork of the Firehole, but the name was
changed to commemorate the tribe's passage eastward up this creek.
6.4/10.6 Mary Mountain Trailhead
(also called Nez Perce Creek Trail). This was the stage-
coach road from Fountain Flats to the Canyon area in the first years of the park. Near Mary
Lake there's a stretch as steep as a stairway where stagecoach passengers were asked to walk
so the horses could make the grade. Mary Mountain and Mary Lake were named for Mary
Clark of Chicago, an 1873 visitor who crossed the park here and was said to have had a lovely
singing voice.
At the start of the Mary Mountain Trail, the low hills of thermally cemented glacial gravel,
called the Porcupine Hills, have some hot springs at their base. The trail passes through an
extensively burned area and prime grizzly bear country. It is 11 miles (18 km) to Mary Lake
(no fish there) and another 9 miles (14.5 km) or more to a point on the Grand Loop Road
between Canyon and Fishing Bridge Junctions. No overnight camping is allowed anywhere
on this trail.
7.4/9.6
Entering the Lower Geyser Basin area. These meadows may be carpeted with purple
fringed gentians in August.
The Lower Geyser Basin is somewhat lower in altitude and downriver from the Upper
Geyser Basin. The explorers who placed names on the land while passing through on horse-
back or on foot were much more aware of the topography than we are in our powerful cars
and buses.
To the west about 4 miles (6.5 km) away are the small round mountains called the
Twin
Buttes.
These buttes are mounds of debris left behind while the glaciers covered Lower Geyser
Basin. The hot steam in this thermal area caused some of the ice to melt and release its load of
rocks and gravel. As more ice moved over this area it melted, leaving more rocks and gravel.
When the glacier retreated, hot vapors continued to rise from below, permeated the hills of
debris, cooled, and precipitated out silica, which cemented the hills.
8.0/9.0
Entrance to Fountain Paint Pot parking for those traveling south. If you
take this half-mile (0.8 km) walk, you can see all four principal types of hydrothermal dis-
