in the distance remind us to keep our rain
gear at hand and not get complacent. We’re
in the rural West now.
The rail-trail is an essential link in the
Greater Yellowstone Trail, a proposed
180-mile, non-motorized, multi-use trail
system that will pass through three states,
a handful of wildlife refuges and state
parks, and endless tracts of U.S. Forest
Service land. Today, more than 100 miles
of the route are passable. Due to the work
being done by trail
T
he smell of sagebrush in
the late afternoon sun is
intoxicating, and I need to
remind myself to keep my
eyes on the trail. There’s
so much to look at that a
person could be overwhelmed by it all.
My friend and I are riding on a seg-
ment of the Ashton-Tetonia Trail, a former
rail corridor in Eastern Idaho between two
sleepy agriculture towns beneath the Teton
Range. While the Wyoming side of the
Tetons often gets more press for its beauty,
the Idaho side is stunning in its own
right. Sweeping potato fields,
open sky and thunderheads
The
Greater
Yellowstone
By Katie Harris
Photos by Camrin Dengel
advocates, land managers and departments
of transportation throughout the region,
the remaining segments are in various
stages of development.
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
(GYE) is home to the budding trail sys-
tem. It’s estimated that the region com-
prises more than 20 million acres (34,000
square miles) of contiguous wildlands
that extend beyond state boundaries to
include portions of Wyoming, Idaho and
Montana. And
while most
Connecting the
Wild West:
rails
to
trails
winter.16
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