Elephant Back Mountain and Lost Lake Loop

So, we're back at it in Yellowstone and since we had a few more days with the cabins empty, we went for another adventure in the park. I believe it's called Elephant Back because once you reach the top, it's fairly level on an oblong type trail. Only one side actually has a view of Lake Yellowstone and the back is all forested with pines.

We reached the starting point, parked the car and headed up the trail. After about 1/2 mile the trail splits into a Y. Most people would have taken the left side due to the gentler slope of the incline, but no, not us! We went for the severe incline. My reasoning was we would get it over with faster and surely it would level out. Perhaps, it was just starting steep and would turn out to be the gentler side. HaHaHa! Jokes on me! The good news is the walk back down was easy.

 Here you see a fire break area to protect the electrical lines. The fire never reached this far but was close enough that this area was closed down for several weeks earlier.

"You're doing it Peter, you're doing it," a quote from HOOK the movie. We've used that a lot on these tougher hikes! The rock outcroppings are so unusual and the color in the rock is very pretty. You can literally see lines and lines of layers of sediment spanning, well, I don't know how many years, but more than I can fathom!

Of course we made it. This is the Lake Yellowstone everyone comes up here to see. This vista does provide a clear view of most of the lake. In the left before the lake is the Yellowstone Lake Lodge. It looks a lot bigger in person.






It's snack time again! (Yes, you get very hungry climbing mountains). Just another hum drum view.

In the top of the lake there are a couple of 'fingers' that take the lake out a bit further. To the right is a third one. All in all it's a pretty lake but not huge.

 Here's a closer view of the complex for the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Oddly enough it's all yellow. :)

And then we walked back down. WooHoo!

During the same week we also did a hike called the Lost Lake Loop. It is another small lake nestled in the rocks and you have to hike in to see it.

Different angle, same lake. Sometimes you can see moose around this lake. There have been several recent sightings of 3 moose in the area, but all we saw were ducks.

Views from the other side of the loop. Again, pretty landscape no matter where you look. This burned out tree is most likely from the 1988 fire.