The Wyoming Range

Willow Creek is a major drainage system for the Wyoming Range, the scenery is fantastic and provides prodigious, geographic, flora and fauna viewing and there are many trails you could get lost on. Take a map. The trail is popular with horseback riders, mountain bikers, hikers hunters, and fisherman.

Willow Creek's headwaters begin high in the Wyoming Range on the south end of Jackson Hole. Fisherman may with to trying to outwit the feisty native Cutthroat that make Willow Creek their home. These fish are native, not stocked, so they offer a challenge for the most experienced fly fisherman and an opportunity to advance the skills of the novice. Catch and release only, please. The Jackson Hole One Fly Foundation - National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Conservation Partnership Program is funded a project to improve a degraded area along Willow Creek.

A peak up Adams Creek Canyon

From the trailhead at Bryan Flats sixteen miles south of the town of Jackson, Wyoming, the trail heads west out of the parking lot and starts a steady climb for one mile to a ridge top high above Willow Creek here, there is a fork in the trail where you can turn down to Alder Creek or continue down the ridge line, the junction is signed.

The next mile straddles the ridge which provides good views of the surrounding Wyoming Range as well as views of the distant Grand Teton Range. When you drop off the ridge you come to a road that is not used anymore and here the is another fork in the trail, you can loop left and head back to the parking lot down a different trail which does make a nice three-mile loop or turn right and continue up Willow Creek trail.

Fall aspen and a Wyoming Range peak

After about a mile there is another fork in the trail, the one to the right goes down the draw to the Willow Creek and the other stays up on the mountain, there is no sign so, on a whim, I took the trial to the creek. It dropped about a half mile down Adams Creek and then hooked over to Willow Creek. The trail continued up the creek and crossed it several times until I broke out into a beautiful meadow, and I could see Shepard Creek Canyon. At Shepard Creek the trail fork that stayed high on the mountain, that I didnŐt take earlier dropped to the creek and joined the trail I was on. I decided to return on the high trail; the junction was marked. Although I turned around here you could continue up Willow Creek for many more miles until you got to Pickle Pass and beyond.

Willow Creek aproaching Shepard Creek

I wished I had budgeted enough time to head farther up Willow Creek, as I hadnŐt gained enough altitude to get to the sub alpine terrain I enjoy so much. What I did see wet my appetite for more, someday there will be a multi-day pack trip to the area as there is way to much too see on a day trip.

The high trail return was a treat as it had better views than the creek bottom route, and it was also shorter. On the return Adams Creek was a lot prettier because of the afternoon light set off the autumn colors much better that the flat light of mid day.

When I got back to the junction where I came off the ridge, I skipped climbing back up the ridge and dropped down the east side of the loop. My trail ride turned into a big figure eight, and I think that was a good way to do it.

For the more adventurous, advanced mountain rider or hiker, the confluence at Shepard Creek would be a good home base for multiple day excursions into the wild. You can go to the head of "Hole-in-the-Wall" for views of the Gros Ventre, Wyoming, and Wind River

The Meadow at the confluence of Shepard Creek and Willow Creek.

mountain ranges from the top of the world. Perhaps you would like to catch up on some history and travel to head of Hunter Creek to Cliff Creek Pass on the way to Historic Roosevelt Meadows, where Teddy Roosevelt himself once hunted and rode. You might choose to travel south on the Greyback Ridge at elevations approaching 10,000 feet to Pickle Pass, overlooking the Little Greys River. Your chances for seeing wildlife are excellent in spring, summer, and fall.

The Willow Creed trail is also a trailhead for the ŇWyoming Range National Recreation TrailÓ Much of the 70-mile Wyoming Range National Recreation Trail, one of the longest trails in Wyoming, it runs along the crest of the Wyoming Range at more than 9,000 feet in elevation. National Recreation Trails are designated by the Secretary of Interior or Agriculture to recognize exemplary trails of local and regional significance.

Fall colors frame up Adams Creek Canyon and the cool looking peak towering over it.

This landscape provides abundant wildlife habitat where backcountry visitors share the land with elk, moose, deer, black bear, and antelope. Bring a good map, the trail is remote, and some sections are hard to find. But thatŐs part of the appeal of this stretch of high-mountain trail. Outstanding opportunity for solitude and primitive recreation, and the area attracts visitors from all over the country, particularly during the big game hunting season.

Getting there

You turn off hwy 191, 16 miles south of Jackson onto Bryan Flats Road on the west side of the highway, There is a large fake bull moose at the turn, continue up a little over a mile till you see a parking area on the right, this is not the end of the road. If you stay on the road, the road turns private.