Exploring Yellowstone's Lake Area; July 5

We spent a day exploring the heart of Yellowstone country, the river and lake of its namesake. Lake Yellowstone is an hour’s drive east of Old Faithful. In one of many geographical quirks of the day, the road to get there crosses the Continental Divide twice in a short five mile stretch. Isla Lake, little more than a pond really, sits astride one of those places. It is claimed to drain to both the West (Pacific drainage) and the East (Gulf of Mexico drainage). Kind of confusing to a drop of rain.

Craig Pass on the Grand Loop Road to Yellowstone Lake

Things change fast up here, especially the weather. After a sunny, warm week, the day was overcast, cool.  Disappointed at first to break out sweatshirts and windbreakers in July, we soon realized that the weather added to the drama of the day’s exploration.

We are very familiar with the beauty of large lakes, having spent so much time around the Great Lakes. Even so, Yellowstone Lake has much to impress the senses. It’s a natural panorama that unfolds mile after mile. The horizon is ringed by sharp-edged mountains that still hold patches of snow in early July. Its entire shoreline is undeveloped. It is big (136 square miles) and deep (400 feet at deepest point). It laid glass calm on the windless, overcast day.

Known as the Lake Area of the Park, there is an entirely different repertoire of thermal features, far different from the pure-white gushing geysers of Old Faithful. Here, the brew of earth, water and volcanic heat becomes acidic. The result is other-worldly, a glimpse of what Earth’s chemistry once was. 

Some of Yellowstone's Volcanic Activity Are Current Events

Huge bubbling mudpots. Steaming pools of green and yellow hues from heat-loving bacteria, the only form of life compatible here. The strong odor of sulfur envelopes aptly named Sulfur Caldron. These are visible along the fringes of the land; it’s said that as many thermal features vent beneath the depths of Yellowstone Lake as are in all the rest of the Park put together.

We walked a long boardwalk where many of these thermal features can be seen close at hand. It is startling just how current Yellowstone’s volcanic activity still is. This didn’t all happen 640,000 years ago and then subside. One named the Black Dragon's Caldron formed suddenly in 1948. Its central vent has moved 200 feet to the west since then. Earthquakes, hundreds of them, reshaped the underground plumbing in the 1990s. New features spring violently to life, others fall dormant. An entire hillside of trees changed almost overnight when the soil temperature soared to the boiling point, cooking the root systems.

Yellowstone Lake is actually a wide spot in the Yellowstone River. The river begins outside the Park about fifty miles to the south on Two Ocean Plateau, unseen save for several hundred visitors each year who venture into its wilderness backcountry. Its water pauses in Yellowstone Lake before gravity takes over once again. For seventeen miles, the Grand Loop Road follows the river from its lake outlet to Yellowstone Falls, readily accessible to all Park visitors.

The Yellowstone River Rushes Headlong Over LeHardy Rapids

The landscape here is dramatic, majestic. The wide expanse of Hayden Valley makes the river appear calm, diminished. Pull off at a turnout and walk to the river’s edge, you find quite the contrary. This is one serious, get-out-of-my-way river. It is big, wide, and powerful. The cascades at LeHardy Rapids and a riffle stretch around the big bend at Sulfur Caldron are the only visual evidence for miles that this river is on the move.

Where it’s going is over Yellowstone Falls and down through the magnificent Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It is breathtaking. We’ll be visiting there soon.

String Quartet, Lake Yellowstone Hotel

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Yellowstone Lake Hotel to celebrate our anniversary. A string quartet played beautiful music in the hotel lobby. The setting is very reminiscent of Mackinac Island in Michigan. A scenic evening cruise on Lake Yellowstone narrated by an entertaining young man from Texas capped the day. 

Last of the Evening's Sunset at Kepler Cascades

We chased an incredible sunset on the drive home around Yellowstone Lake and on to Old Faithful. Once again, the camera’s lens doesn’t capture what played out for us.