Catching my FIRST EVER cutthroat trout

A few weekends back I drove 4 1/2 hours from Salt Lake City to Idaho to visit my good friend Andy for the weekend not knowing what was in store. He lives just West of  the Idaho/Montanna border near aYellowstone, so I expected we would be doing some sort of outdoor adventures in Yellowstone National Park and the Idaho area. I was planning on filming the whole trip and making a YouTube video out of the experience. I was NOT planning on seeing a black bear, hiking around 18 miles in a single day, and catching my first ever cutthroat trout!

The weekend was a blast. Truthfully, any time spent with good friends is fun, but this was extra fun. Even though my legs ached from the crazy long mileage I put them through, I enjoyed every second of it. We originally hadn't planned on going that far, but when we got to the trailhead of a hike to Heart Lake, someone let us know that the fishing was terrible. He recommended we didn't waste our time hiking to the lake.

After a quick change of plans, we opted to hike 8-9 miles along the south boundary of Yellowstone to Beaula Lake. Most people hike to this lake from a different vantage point and it is only a 2 mile hike. Sadly, from our spot at the southern entrace it would have taken us around 2 hours to get to that trailhead . So, we pushed on with the longer route. And let me tell you, it was longgggg. I was glad that the elevation didn't change a lot because I don't know if I would have made it.

Because of the long hike we only had about 40 minutes to fish. My hike was rewarded though because I caught two Yellowstone cutthroat trout! It was such a cool feeling to check that fish off my bucket list.

After finally reaching the car, I had a feeling of satisfaction for not only completing such a long hike, but for catching a fish I had never hooked into before.

Happy days!

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Until next time!

-Hawkin