Yellowstone Country Safety * ATV Safety *

Please drive your car/truck cautiously on Island Park’s roads. ATV operators may be inexperienced and unpredictable. And to ATV drivers, you will be on the short end of the stick in any collision with a car or truck, regardless of fault.

Add a Tomahawk to your gear

I have been studying the equipment used by backcountry campers and one piece that has been discussed is the tomahawk. I have never carried a hatchet in the field because of the weight and the short handles that reduce the effective power of a strike. The tomahawk has a large blade but a light head and a longer handle. It makes sense that the frontier men regularly carried them. The tomahawk would be useful as a hammer in pounding stakes while setting up a spike camp. It could be used for clearing limbs for a tree stand, chopping firewood, splitting bone when field dressing game and as an additional weapon for any nasties that may jump out of the brush. The Cold Steel Trail Hawk is only 27 oz and relatively inexpensive.
I have also noticed that outdoorsmen have a habit of removing the entire finish from both the head and the handle. They then give the tomahawk a handrubbed finish making them reminiscent of an 18th century mountain man tool. I believe that I am going to try one in the field this year. It just might be a welcome addition to my equipment!