Picnic area · Yellowstone National Park
A practical creekside spot for a picnic and leg stretch.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Yellowstone Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Yellowstone National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Yellowstone audio tourRecorded for this area
Newcomers on the High Ridges“Mountain goats have a surprisingly short history in Yellowstone. Their ancestors were introduced into nearby mountain ranges in the nineteen forties and fifties.”
Plays on the road 0.1 mi from Soda Butte Creek Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Yellowstone Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“First time driving through a national park. We used the Yellowstone tour on grand loop Road and it’s just like having a tour guide in your car with you.”
Guide
Soda Butte Creek Picnic Area is a small picnic stop beside the creek in Yellowstone's northeast, set in an open meadow below forested slopes. It suits a meal break or a chance to stretch your legs; the draw is the water and valley setting rather than a long list of things to do.
There are seven tables, including one accessible table, plus an accessible vault toilet and designated accessible parking. The tables sit close to the creek, but there is little shade, so expect to sit in the open.
This is a picnic stop, so plan on your own meal. Soda Butte has no potable water; Madison is the only Yellowstone picnic area with it. Keep food, trash, coolers, and cooking gear secured when they are not in use. The park requires this to keep bears from getting access to human food.
Wildlife
713 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
743 sightingsWolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
5,273 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
3,258 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
397 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,494 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Yellowstone. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingThunderer Cutoff Trail9.8 mi · 6.5 hr · 1.1 mi awayA lonely climb to Chaw Pass and the Cache Creek backcountry.
ModerateTrout Lake Trail1.2 mi · 1.5 hr · 3.1 mi awayA steep climb leads to a still lake beneath rugged peaks.Parkwolf’s Yellowstone ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
