Today is the last day for us in Yellowstone and we took advantage of the beautiful weather this morning to hike to Shoshone Lake on the De Lacy Creek trail. It’s 3 miles each way and we added a bit more at the far end to walk the beach along the north shore of the lake. Shoshone is at 7,700 elevation and is believed to be the largest lake in the continental US without road access.
Like all trailheads in the Park, bear information is posted at the trailhead and BJ made sure they knew we were coming. Shortly after we started, we dug some bug repellent out – the mosquitos were live and well!
Much of the trail is in the trees, often near the edges of meadows that are supposed to be good moose habitat but we saw neither bear nor moose. Every once in a while, a section of trail would cut across an arm of the meadow.
About 2 miles in we met a young couple coming out from a 3 day back country trip. When we got to the lake we had the whole beach to ourselves although it was clear that at least once bear had recently walked along the edge of the water.
Nice spot to eat a snack and add a more liberal helping of Ben’s magic potion.
On the way back, shortly after I asked BJ to take a picture to prove I actually was on the hike, we met the first two people headed south. By the time we got back to the trailhead, we’d seen 28 people in groups of 2 to 6, headed towards the lake as the thunderclouds built along the continental divide about a mile away.
It was really pretty amazing that in a park as popular as Yellowstone, we could have significant solitude by getting away from the road.
Based on the views at Shoshone, the Lewis Lake > Lewis River > Shoshone Lake trip is back on my want to do list!.
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