Garnet Hill Trail

You start on a wide dirt stagecoach road — yes, an actual historic route where coaches once rattled tourists toward Roosevelt Lodge — and the walking is easy, almost deceptively so. The first stretch rolls through open sagebrush meadows with Garnet Hill rising to your east. About a mile and a half in, you hit the old cookout shelter where the lodge runs its dinner rides, and the trail narrows as it drops toward Elk Creek. This is where things get interesting: the landscape shifts from dry meadow to riparian corridor, and you are firmly in wildlife country. Bison graze the flats, elk bed down in the creek bottoms, and bear sign is common. Note that the full loop around Garnet Hill is currently impassable due to a washout on the east fork — check the backcountry conditions report before you go. This one rewards patient walkers who would rather spot a grazing bison than bag a summit.