Deep within Yellowstone National Park, wolves howl unheard and waterfalls cascade unseen—understandably, considering more than 99 percent of the park's annual visitors never visit the backcountry. Photographer and guide Tom Murphy is a major exception to the rule.
For 30 years Murphy has hiked, photographed, backpacked, and skied the park's largely unexplored lands, spending about a third of every year there.
On last summer's travel's Murphy and writer Tim Cahill found unnamed falls, barely visited rock formations, and the most remote inhabited dwelling in the U.S. They later translated their exploits into the May 2002 Adventure's “Moonbow Chronicles” (read excerpt).
While Murphy exposes the park's hidden corners through his camera's lens, he's opposed to guidebooks that divulge the park's secrets, such as a recently published guide to the park's “undiscovered” waterfalls.
“It's not that I'm trying to hide anything,” he says. ”I'd just rather have people wander around and find things for themselves.”
In the photos and audio clips on this page, Murphy reveals the wilderness most people miss in the United States' original national treasure.
—Kristin Weber
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