Yellowstone: Heart Lake/Yellowstone Lake, August 2021

In August 2021 Herman, Nancy, and I, together with my friends Colleen and Tom from Washington, spent nine days backpacking through the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. Amazingly, for a place that is so teeming with tourists, we had five consecutive days where we saw no one outside our little group! It was very different from the usual "touristy" Yellowstone experience.

I had packed for the hike several days before the hike itself, to allow for a couple of days to drive there and a day or two to acclimate to the elevation. The 10-day forecast at the time predicted lots of sunshine, lows in the low 40s (F), one day with a 24% probability of rain -- so to save weight I packed minimally: a lightweight low-R-value sleeping pad, thin jacket, no gloves. By the time I arrived at Yellowstone a couple of days later, the forecast had changed to: storm passing through, 80% chance of rain, lows in the low 30s. Unfortunately I was too far from home at this point to do much about my gear beyond a few small tweaks.

Day 1: Heart Lake Trailhead to Surprise Creek (12.7 miles)

Up a little before 4, heat up some water for a big high-calorie breakfast ahead of a 12-mile day, get everything packed up.  We were on the hike around 7.  The trail was conspicuous and easy to follow: well-traveled and worn into a rut that meandered through the countryside, rising gradually about 350 feet over the first four miles and then dropping about 700 feet over the next 3.5 miles to Heart Lake.  The weather was perfect.  There were some thermal features along roughly the middle third of this section of the trail, including a few that steamed and hissed and gurgled just a few feet away from where we were walking.  There were a few other hikers on the trail: enough to notice, but not enough to feel crowded.  Especially enjoyable was running into Layne, a young man whom I had thus far known only from our online interactions on the Yellowstone subreddit—we stopped and chatted for a while, and it was pretty cool to see the person behind what until then had been just an online handle.

We weren't sure what sort of wildlife to expect: on the one hand, this portion of the trail got a reasonable amount of hiker traffic, which ought to have scared bears away; on the other hand, NPS's Yellowstone website had a "strong bear warning" for the west side of Heart Lake, and we didn't know how far from the lake that extended.  So, on the principle of "better safe than sorry", we kept up an enthusiastic chant of "Hey bear!" and its variants.  Any bears in the neighborhood, quite sensibly, didn't show themselves, our ursine invitations notwithstanding.  At one point Tom, perhaps the sharpest-eyed among us, spotted some moving specks in a meadow in the distance.  This caused a flutter of excitement (with perhaps just a tinge of trepidation); eventually, to our combined relief and disappointment, the specks turned out to be a couple of sandhill cranes.

We reached Heart Lake around 11 and stopped for lunch.  It was delightful to stretch out on the soft sand and relax.  No one complained when lunch stretched on for a bit.

Eventually we got our packs back on again.  The trail headed away from the lake, bearing east across gently undulating meadows with occasional stands of pine trees for a couple of miles before veering south back towards the lake.  We reached the junction of Heart River Trail and Trail Creek Trail around 2:30, and our first creek crossing, of Surprise Creek, shortly afterwards. 

The water was only about ankle deep and the creek wasn't all that wide, but being desert dwellers unaccustomed to creek crossings it took us a little while to get everything in order (practice makes perfect, and we got a lot better at it over the course of the hike).  Our first night's campsite, 8J3, was immediately to the east of the creek.

The character of the trail changed dramatically east of the trail junction: I guess most hikers stay on Heart River Trail, with few heading east away from the lake.  The trail we were on, Trail Creek Trail, was a lot more overgrown and indistinct compared to what we had just been on---an abrupt change that caused some consternation at first.  But the campsite itself was well-marked, with a good bear-hang, a well-defined cooking area, and a nice flat area where we could pitch our tents.  We set to work on the usual setting-up-camp chores.

We had a brief rain shower late in the afternoon that sent us scurrying to our tents.  But overall it was a very pleasant camp.

Days 2 and 3: Surprise Creek to Grouse Creek to Yellowstone Lake

Surprise Creek to Grouse Creek: 5.4 miles

The second day dawned cloudy and wet.  Making and eating breakfast, and taking down our camp, involved hurried little spurts of activity in the lulls between showers.  A couple of big pine trees offered little dry patches beneath their branches that gave us some shelter as we packed up.  We were on the trail by 9.

The rain was pretty much continuous all morning, heavy at times.  The trail was muddy and slippery, in some places a convenient channel for the water running down the hillsides.  In many places it was hidden in knee-high grass, which also made it hard to see boggy muddy patches until too late.  There were several slips and falls.  We learned about various types of fun (Types 1, 2, and 3).

The rain paused around mid-day, shortly before we reached Grouse Creek.  But our campground, 7G1, was nowhere to be seen.  It took some confused wandering around before we sighted the campground's bear hang some distance away.  Meanwhile the skies cleared and the sun came out, and we were able to set out our wet gear to dry.  So, even though my boots and socks were soggy, it was a relief to be able to look forward to a dry tent to sleep in.

Clouds rolled in again in the late afternoon, and after a hurried dinner I dived into my tent.  It was cozy and warm under the quilt, and I fell asleep to the patter of raindrops on my rain fly.

It rained on and off through the night.  The morning dawned clear and cold.  My tent had a thin glaze of ice—rain and condensation that had frozen overnight.  The grass in the meadow was coated in white frost.  The trees in the distance were hazy behind a light veil of fog, lit from behind by the rising sun.  It was cold but beautiful; the silence was magical.

Little by little people began to stir, and we began our morning routines.  We had only a seven-mile hike to Yellowstone Lake over what seemed to be flat and easy terrain, so there wasn't a huge rush to get on the trail, which meant we had time to put our wet tents out in the sun to dry before we packed them away.  

Grouse Creek to Trail Point (Yellowstone Lake): 7.2 miles

The day's hike started with a half-hour or so of confused wandering around, more or less mirroring the previous afternoon's confusion trying to find the campground except that this time it was trying to get out onto the trail.  

Once we were on the trail, the hike was delightful: blue sky, pleasant warm sun, and a perfect temperature.  The terrain was a gently undulating mix of pine forests and wide expanses of meadows.  There were lots of downed trees everywhere, though the trail itself was clear---trees that had fallen across the trail had been sawed through and moved, which must have been a huge amount of work.  The only wildlife we saw were some large birds in the distance: a bunch of white swans cruising haughtiy on a lake, and several flights of Canada geese honking loudly as they flew by.

As we got closer to Yellowstone Lake, we began to see increasing signs of bear activity—mostly deep scratches on tree trunks. Although none of them looked very fresh, they were an effective reminder to stay alert and make noise.

 

Our first glimpse of Yellowstone Lake, a deep blue expanse away in the distance beyond lush green meadows covered with thick stands of bright pink fireweed, was a treat.  The trail skirts the South Arm of the lake, then seems to veer away until it reaches the Southeast Arm a few miles later.  Our campground, 6A3, was 0.2 miles up the beach. My pack felt noticeably heavier over that last little less-than-a-quarter-mile stretch. 

Days 3 and 4: Yellowstone Lake

The campground was quite a bit more luxurious than the ones we'd had earlier in the hike: it had a bear box, two(!) bear hangs, and a large open cooking/eating area with several logs to sit on.  And—luxury!—a pit toilet.  Plus, of course, stunning views of Yellowstone lake.  The only drawback was that there were ants everywhere—and I do mean everywhere!  And they weren't shy about biting!  Finding a place to pitch a tent turned out to be harder than expected—it seemed that any place that was flat and level enough to be a plausible tent site also had a large anthill nearby.  Routine camp chores, like purifying water or preparing food, now additionally involved dealing with cantankerous ants crawling up one's legs.  But we must have gotten used to each other after a while, and the ants didn't seem quite as annoying the next day.

Day 4 was a rest day.  We sat around and chatted, went for walks along the lakefront, nibbled on wild raspberries, went swimming in Lake Yellowstone, and generally had a wonderful and relaxing day.

The haze increased as the day wore on, and by afternoon it was very smoky---visibility was so bad that we couldn't see the hills on the other side of the lake!  Our big worry was the possibility of a new fire between us and the trailhead that could prevent us from getting out of the hike.  Luckily for us, Nancy was able to get just enough of a cell signal to get out a text query about this, and we were hugely relieved to learn that the wildfire situation in our vicinity hadn't changed, which meant that the increase in smoke and haze was due to a shift in the wind.  Eventually the wind shifted back, and there was a brief rain shower in the early evening, which helped clear the air.

Days 5 and 6: Trail Point to Grouse Creek to Surprise Creek

Trail Point (Yellowstone Lake) to Grouse Creek: 7.2 miles

The next morning we packed up and began retracing our steps back towards Grouse Creek, the big difference being that this time it was nice and dry and sunny (there wasn't even any condensation in the tent).  A special treat was a deer that Tom noticed browsing quietly by the campsite.  

The hike back to Grouse Creek was delightful: sunny, blue skies, perfect temperature, and a slight breeze.  The trail had dried out considerably from a few days ago, making the hiking much easier.  It was just a really pleasant walk.  We didn't even have to wander around to find the campground.

The campground, however, looked awful.  A group with horses had used it since we had last been there, and they had left the place a mess: the area where we had pitched our tents was full of deep holes from horse hooves, and there were piles of horse dung everywhere, even right beside the cooking/eating area.  It was disgusting.

At some point later that night, lying in my tent, I was awakened by some animal calls that sounded close by.  It sounded vaguely like elk bugling, but much much deeper (I found out the next morning that Herman had triggered the animal chorus when he went out and turned on his headlamp -- by a process of elimination we think it could have been wolves, though I didn't see any other sign, e.g., track or scat, that might have made an identification easier).  I poked my head out of the tent briefly around midnight.  The stars were amazing, the Milky Way a bright band across the sky.  Very briefly I thought about setting up a camera, but it was too cold to do anything but jump back into the tent and under my quilt.

Grouse Creek to Surprise Creek: 5.4 miles

I was awakened the next morning by the loud honking of many geese somewhere nearby.  When I came out of my tent, everything was covered with a white dusting of frost.  The prospect of changing into freezing cold hiking clothes, which had been sitting out in the bear hang overnight, was not terribly appealing.  By this time the tent and rain fly were wet from the melting frost, but they dried surprisingly quickly when spread out in the morning sun.  We packed up and were on the trail by 9:30.

The hike to Surprise Creek, under a warm sun and blue sky, was delightful.  The trail was a lot drier than it had been when we had covered that same ground in pouring rain a few days earlier, though there were still boggy spots and slippery muddy patches here and there, usually hidden by thick knee-high grass.  We reached the Surprise Creek campsite mid-afternoon, and after the usual setting-up-camp chores had a pleasant and lazy afternoon.

Day 7: Surprise Creek to Basin Creek (5.9 miles)

Tom and Colleen decided to head back to the trailhead.  Tom had been suffering from worsening foot pain over the last few days, and this seemed the most sensible decision.  We had enjoyed their company and were sorry to see them go.

From the campground, we headed west a short distance to the junction with Heart River Trail, then south and southwest on Heart River Trail, then swung back north towards Heart Lake along Basin Creek Cutoff.  Another day of gorgeous hiking weather.  The trail mostly stayed close to streams, and we had a total of six creek crossings as the trail meandered back and forth across them: two of Surprise Creek, two of Heart River, and two of Snake River.  The water was cool and refreshing, generally ankle- to mid-calf-deep (it's higher and colder earlier in the season).  Creek crossings aren't something we do a lot of in desert hiking back home, but we were getting used to them and they didn't seem quite as strange as on the first day of our hike.  

Hiking south on Heart River Trail we ran into three hiking parties, maybe five or six people altogether.  This snapped the streak of five consecutive days without seeing a single soul outside our group!

The trail ran parallel to Heart River for quite a while, bordered by fierce pink stands of fireweed.  There were lots of grasshoppers along the trail, their coloring blending perfectly into the dark of the soil.  They would sit around quietly unless we got too close, at which point they would leap up, tut-tut-tutting angrily at being disturbed, and fly away in a flash of bright yellow wings before landing and once again disappearing into invisibility.

As we hiked along, Nancy and I noticed prints from a large ungulate along the trail.  They were oddly shaped --- the only animal we could think of with hooves that size was a moose, though the prints didn't look like moose tracks.  Curiously, the tracks marched right down the trail, and even turning north at the  trail junction to stay on the Basin Creek Cutoff trail.  This seemed all the more strange considering all the creek crossings involved along the way.  At one point I even wondered whether it might be a hiker with prank soles!  Eventually we ran into an oncoming hiker who told us that a group ahead of us on the trail had a bunch of llamas.

The campsite, 8B5, was secluded and beautiful, hidden in a thick stand of pine trees and overlooking Basin Creek, a pretty little stream meandering by quietly a couple of hundred feet away.  But just to keep us from getting too complacent, the path from the cooking/eating area to where we had pitched our tents had several large dark turds, maybe a day old, that could only have been dropped by a passing bear.  Point duly noted.

After a pleasant and quiet dinner, I turned in early.

Day 8: Basin Creek to South Bay (4.7 miles)

A short day in perfect hiking weather.  We came across the llamas at the next campground up the trail and stopped briefly to admire them.  There was just one creek crossing, of Basin Creek.  We reached our destination, campground 8H1, a little before lunchtime.  

Our campground was just off the southwest corner of Heart Lake, and offered gorgeous views of Mt. Sheridan.  After the usual camp setup chores and lunch we wandered down to the lake and relaxed in the shade.  Nancy went for a swim and ended up with two leeches on her feet, which we removed by dousing them generously with salt.

Later that afternoon Nancy spotted a grizzly bear (its hump was clearly visible in zoomed-in photos) wandering around the slopes of Mt. Sheridan about half a mile or so away.  We sat and watched the little dark blob slowly traverse the hillside, disappearing behind clumps of trees every so often; eventually it moved up the hill away from us.

Day 9: South Bay to Heart Lake Trailhead (9.7 miles)

The last day of the hike.  A part of me was sad at the end of a truly amazing experience; another part was ready for an artery-clogging cheeseburger.

We were sitting around at breakfast when Herman sprang up and yelled "Bear!"  A large black bear ("black" meaning "not grizzly") was wandering through the bushes at the edge of the campground maybe 30-50 feet away.  We leapt up, bear spray in hand, yelling and screaming and waving our arms trying to scare it away (I'm embarrassed to admit that at first I forgot to take the safety off the bear spray).  The bear ignored all this fuss and sauntered away nonchalantly into the bushes.  Later we saw it higher up on the slopes of Mt. Sheridan, roughly where the grizzly had been the previous afternoon.  This was the closest we got to a bear encounter all trip.

We were on the trail not long after that, and made good time.  At Heart Lake we ran into a volunteer ranger and chatted with him and his wife for a while, even sticking our heads into their cabin.  The sun was quite a bit higher by the time we headed back up the trail.  Between the uphill stretch and the heat (the temperature hit the mid-80s that day) and lack of shade, the hike back felt long.  We reached the trailhead around 2:30.  The hike was done.