Slough Creek, Yellowstone

As Howard Back remarked in his splendid The Waters of Yellowstone with Rod and Fly (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1938), this stream is locally pronounced "Sloo." It is a cutthroat stream of rare beauty with an abundance of splendid fish, and a good insect population.

Anglers regard the river as being in four sections. The first mile above its juncture with the Lamar is a cascade-riffle stretch through a steep canyon. It is not much fished. The reason is that from the bench at the head of this canyon to the second canyon, a half-mile above Slough Creek Campground, are three miles of really excellent water much more easily reached. It is pools, runs and riffles, one after the other, through an open, meadow-laced basin, and the largest fish in the creek are to be found here. But they are very difficult to catch in the larger sizes (twenty inches and up). Unlike many Yellowstone Park streams, this one is not paralleled by roadways. It is approachable by automobile only at the trailhead.