Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lone Star's eruptions occur almost exactly three hours apart, and the interval has averaged
2.5 to 3 hours with no interruption ever since the park was founded. Rangers no longer post
eruption predictions at the Old Faithful Visitor Center, but you can help other visitors by re-
cording the time of any eruption you witness in the logbook near the geyser.
The backcountry trail continues past Lone Star's thermal area to Shoshone Lake and Gey-
ser Basin (another 6.2 mi/10 km). Before the lake, a (southern) branch leads to the vast and
undeveloped Bechler Region in the park's southwest. A much closer trail to Shoshone Lake's
north shore is at mile 10.
5/8
.9, the DeLacy Creek Trailhead.
6.5/12.9 Scaup Lake
to the north. A scaup is a type of duck related to the canvasback and
sometimes seen in the park.
Not far from here, along Spring Creek (which the road used to follow), the most profit-
able—to the robber!— of Yellowstone's five stagecoach robberies took place. The victims of
this 1908 crime called it “the greatest stage coach hold up and highway robbery in the twen-
tieth century.” One man was able to stop 17 coaches and take more than $2000 in money and
jewelry from the passengers. He was never caught.
Scaup Lake was the center of a more recent scandal, according to Alston Chase's book,
Playing God in Yellowstone.
This was one of the places in the park where geologists were al-
lowed to use dynamite as part of a 1980 borehole project, possibly causing the extinction of a
rare species of salamander.
6.8/12.6
Small pond, Congress Lake (named because it “just sits there and does nothing”)
to the south, and large parking area a little farther east for easy trail access down Spring Creek
Trail.
As the road climbs you may see patches of snow along the road, even in July.
7.2/12.2
Spring Creek picnic area on the right (south). Near the restroom is a
trailhead for the Spring Creek Trail that shortens the hike down the creek to the Lone Star
Geyser Trail by over a mile.
8.2/11.2
Spring Creek and Divide Lookout marked trailheads.
he
Spring Creek Trail
follows the creek and the Firehole River for a total of about 6 miles
(9.5 km) from this trailhead to the Lone Star Trailhead parking area (at mile 4.
2/1
5.2). he
trail uses the route of an 1890s stagecoach road through Spring Creek canyon, described in
early literature as “one of the prettiest short trips on the Loop,” and as having “irregular walls”
and “rock needles pointing skyward.”
