Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Back on the main road a small boardwalk trail marks the spot where a freak tornado
ripped through the plateau in 1984. This was also the spot of the fiercest of 1988's wild-
fires.
Ice Lake Trail
leads 0.5 miles to the peaceful namesake lake, with a handicapped-ac-
cessible backcountry site (4D3) on its southern shore. In his book
Lost in My Own Back-
yard,
writer Tim Cahill wrote of the lake: 'Is this a great country or what? Where else
would the wilderness - or one lovely part of it - be made accessible in such a way that the
disabled can spend entire sleepless nights worried about being eaten by a bear, just like
any able-bodied hiker?' Excellent. Sites 4D1 and 4D2 are just a mile or so from the road
and make a great first backcountry site for young families. Camping here feels like own-
ing your own private lake. Trails continue northeast along the border of a major burn area
to Wolf Lake (3 miles) and Grebe Lake (another 1.5 miles). For details on longer hike op-
tions to Cascade Lake,
Click here
.
Further down the Norris-Canyon road, you'll pass the Cygnet Lakes and then the
Grebe Lake and
Cascade Creek Trailheads
, which offer an alternative route through
burned forest to Grebe and Cascade Lakes.
Geyser Country
Yellowstone's Geyser Country holds the park's most spectacular geothermal features,
(over half the world's total) concentrated in the world's densest concentration of geysers
(over 200 spouters in 1.5 sq miles). It is Geyser Country that makes the Yellowstone plat-
eau utterly and globally unique.
The majority of the geysers line the Firehole River, the aquatic backbone of the basin,
whose tributaries feed 21 of the park's 110 waterfalls. Both the Firehole and Madison
Rivers offer superb fly-fishing, and the meadows along them support large wildlife popu-
lations.
The most famous geysers always attract a crowd, but sometimes it's the smaller fea-
tures that are the most interesting. The smaller geysers make up for their lack of size with
great names, such as North Goggles, Little Squirt, Gizmo, Spanker, Spasmodic, Slurper
and Bulger (aliases the seven dwarfs might adopt to form a criminal gang).
In the introduction to
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
(1960), historian Daniel
Boorstin attributed Yellowstone Park's enormous appeal 'to the fact that its natural phe-
nomena, which erupt on schedule, come closest to the artificiality of “regular” tourist per-
formances.' So grab some popcorn and check show times at the visitor center.
