From Shoshone Point, the road again ascends to the Continental Divide, and then drops down the Atlantic slope toward the Yellowstone Valley.
Lake View (18 miles) is at a point where a sudden turn in the forest road brings the tourist, quite without warning, in full view of one of the most striking water landscapes in the world. The whole vista of the Yellowstone Lake is spread out before him, still 300 feet below where he is standing. Far to the right and left, along the distant eastern shore, extends the Absaroka Range of mountains, many of its summits still capped with snow. Every-where the dark pine forests come down to the water’s edge, in fine contrast with the silver surface of the lake. The sparkling of the waves, the passage of the cloud shadows, and, in sheltered coves, the tranquil mirror of the waters, all combine to make the picture one to be long remembered.
The Yellowstone Lake is about 7,741 feet, nearly a mile and a half, above the level of the sea. It has a shore line of 100 miles, and an area of 139 square miles. Its maximum depth is 300 feet, and its average depth about 30 feet. It is fed almost entirely from the springs and snow drifts of the Absaroka Range. Its waters are icy cold, clear and transparent to great depths, and literally swarm with trout. It is subject to heavy south-west winds, and at times is lashed into tempestuous seas.
Terry Engr. Co.
U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories.
Yellowstone Lake.
The shape of the lake was compared by the early explorers to the form of the human hand. The resemblance is exceedingly remote, and one writer has well observed that only the hand of a base ball player who has stood for years behind the bat could satisfy the comparison. The “fingers” have now been generally dropped from the maps and replaced by the usual names; but “West Thumb” seems to have become a fixture.
Surpassing the Yellowstone Lake both in area and altitude there are but few lakes in the world. Lake Titticaca, in Peru, and one or two others in the less explored regions of the Andes; and also a few lakes on the lofty table-land of Thibet, comprise the number.
The Yellowstone Lake has been a theme of enthusiastic praise by all who have ever seen it; but what seems to us the most exquisite tribute it has ever received is to be found in the farewell words of Mr. Folsom, when, in 1869, he regretfully turned away from its western shore into the deep forests which surround it: [BI]