Back in the day my brother and I nearly became a statistic of things stupid people do in Yellowstone Park. We were both young teens and loved to fly fish. Recently I found a picture of the Gibbon Falls that sparked a memory. 
We had trekked into the Gibbon River to fish the base of the falls. There were no trails, just crisscrossed blow downed logs. The forest had not burned and was full of obstacles and critters. The fishing was fair, but the adventure made it fun.
We had finished our evening session and decided that navigating back over the blow downed logs was a bad idea. Instead, we decided to climb up the steep hill to where the roadside tourists were gazing at us. At the moment, it did not seem like a big deal.
We managed to get to the stone wall that kept tourists from falling into the canyon. It also would keep us from getting onto the road. When we looked back down the hill we had climbed, we knew going back was not an option.
At the base of the wall was a picket pin highway that the large rodents used to traverse the hill. This narrow path would be our salvation. We shoved our fly rods down the back of our pants, hung onto the rock barrier and sidestep towards the end of the wall, where it met the roadway.
Whew, we made it! Next, we hiked back down the hill to the picnic area where our dad picked us up. I am not sure if we told Dad what we had done but…
Stay on the trails!
Montana Grant
