Howard Eaton Trail: Glen Creek to Mammoth Hot Springs

This is a point-to-point walk on the Mammoth section of the Howard Eaton Trail. The marked trail is listed at 3.8 miles one way; reaching it from Glen Creek Trailhead adds about 0.2 mile along Glen Creek, so the mapped walk to the Beaver Ponds junction is about 4.0 miles. Allow around 2½ hours, including a few stops. The route loses about 1,000 feet overall, though the first half-mile climbs roughly 150 feet. Arrange a pickup or second vehicle in Mammoth; walking back makes it an eight-mile day. A further 0.2 mile from the Beaver Ponds junction continues into Mammoth.

From Glen Creek Trailhead (1K3), follow the short path alongside Glen Creek to the Howard Eaton junction. The first half-mile rises through forest before views open to Bunsen Peak and Cathedral Rock to the east, Swan Lake Flat to the south, and the Gallatin Range beyond. The route then narrows beside the canyon walls as it descends through Golden Gate.

Around mile 1.4, the path enters the Hoodoos, also called Silver Gate: pale, ghost-shaped travertine blocks that broke away from old hot-spring terraces on Terrace Mountain. Around mile 2.8, the Howard Eaton line crosses Snow Pass Trail. It leaves the trees near the Upper Mammoth terraces, where orange markers lead through the thermal area past Orange Spring Mound, remnants of New Highland Terrace, and Narrow Gauge Springs and Terrace. The last drop loses more than 200 feet in 0.3 mile to the Beaver Ponds junction. Among the Hoodoos, frame the winding path against the pale blocks to show their scale.

The original 157-mile Howard Eaton Trail opened in 1923, the year after Eaton died. Superintendent Horace Albright and Alice Morris pieced the route together from existing trails, bridle paths, and abandoned roads for horseback parties. This Mammoth–Golden Gate section is one of the surviving pieces that still carries Eaton’s name.