Yellowstone NP: Lewis Lake - Lewis River - Shoshone Lake
My nephew and I canoed across Lewis Lake, up the Lewis River, and around Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. This has been along anticipated adventure and so glad we were able to do it this year.
Lewis Lake is one of only two lakes in Yellowstone Park that allows motorized boating. Only hand-powered craft are allowed on Lewis Riverand Shoshone Lake. Shoshone Lake is the second largest lake in the park and the largest lake in the US with no road access.
We covered the route over a three-day period staying at a couple of different back country sites. The first day we covered about 13.5miles.
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There is one section of the Lewis River, approximately 1.5 miles long, that cannot be paddled and the canoe must be towed.
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We did not see a great deal of wildlife while on the boat, but we did see a lot of large flocks of ducks on the lake like this one. We also saw a group of 5 otters, but did not get a pictures. Deer and small animals made up the rest of the sightings. We also saw a lot of fish in the river portion.
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The first campsite had a huge black sand/pebble beach. It was just beautiful. There were some storm clouds building as we approached the narrows and we decided to push across before the storm arrived on the lake. Shortly after reaching camp, the storm came up. We had read many warnings about how quickly the wind and waves can pick up on Shoshone Lake, but even with those warnings, how quickly the wind went from near nothing to howling and how fast the whitecaps hit was surprising. Very glad we were safely on shore at that point.
Pictures of the storm did not turn out at all. The next morning, the water was mirrored and we had beautiful weather.
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I set up back from the lake that night to avoid some of the wind. Also, the trees on the edge were really swaying and I wanted to avoid them. We had already seen one tree get blown into the Gallatin River on the way to the park the previous day and wanted to avoid that as well.
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We went about 3 miles to our second camp where we were joined by my brother and his wife who had hiked in. We made their hike much easier by hauling all of the camping gear on the canoe. The second night was closer to the inlet of DeLacy Creek. The beach was much smaller. I did not take a picture of my setup for that night, but did get a picture out of the hammock the next morning.
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On the way out, we were again hit by an early afternoon storm. This time while on the river. Heavy rain and hail pelted us on the way out. Luckily, the weather cleared before our crossing of Lewis Lake. Overall, we covered about 28 miles in the canoe and had two beautiful campsites. I’ll definitely be heading back to do this one again.
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Originally Posted by DelayedNeutron
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