With the season starting to wind down, YCP is still making the most of every workday—and Week 9 was no exception.
On Monday, the crew split up at the Leigh Lake trailhead. One team staged logs for an upcoming causeway replacement project, while the other headed four miles up Paintbrush Canyon for some much-needed trail brushing. Once the logs were in place, the first group joined in at Paintbrush, where the trail corridor had grown thick with vegetation, slowing hikers but offering plenty of ripe huckleberries along the way.
Tuesday brought another full day of brushing, this time in Granite Canyon. The crew hiked nearly four miles up and then worked their way back down, clearing overgrown sections that had been making travel tricky for the animal packers working in the area this year. By the end of the day, the lower canyon was transformed and much more passable.
Wednesday marked the fourth annual collaboration with the National Elk Refuge, a day that’s become a crew favorite. The morning project focused on the Wildflower Nature Trail, where YCP leveled ground under two benches at scenic viewpoints and added 20–25 new drains to improve erosion control. The afternoon included educational talks from Refuge staff, followed by a driving tour through a section of the Refuge normally closed to the public. The highlight? Four moose cooling off in a quiet pond near the Gros Ventre River.
Thursday’s project took the crew to the Upper Blacktail Butte climbing area, where they helped haul logs and move rocks for an ongoing trail improvement effort. A bit of rain brought welcome relief from the summer heat, and the team ended the day back at the trail shop for a thorough clean-up—closing out another productive week. It is hard to believe that next Thursday is the last day of the season for the YCP crew!
