Ice Lake to Wolf Lake to Little Gibbon Falls

Today Emily, Erica and I went hiking in the Norris area of the park. Our plan was to hike to Ice Lake, Wolf Lake, and Grebe Lake in a shuttle hike. We started by hiking to Ice Lake, about half a mile from the trailhead. We hiked all around the lake and then headed toward Wolf Lake, about two and a half miles away. The entire trail went through areas burned by the fires of '88, which scorched about a third of Yellowstone. Many burned trees still stand, and underneath, new lodgepole pines are growing. Lodgepole pine trees rely on fire - their seeds are released from their cones by the heat of forest fires. The young lodgepole pines are thriving in this area and all over the park. 

Ice Lake Trailhead

Ice Lake

First makeshift bridge

Emily crossing another makeshift bridge 

(on the way back, I lost my footing on this one, and my feet went into the river. The water went higher than my boots, so I was walking in puddles the whole way back)

We had to cross several makeshift bridges made of piles of logs across rivers and streams. After crossing a couple of these, we found ourselves at Wolf Lake. At this point, we lost the trail for a little while. After some searching, we realized that it crossed a slow moving, but deep stream. We didn't have sandals for a ford, so we went off trail along the river to look for a place narrow enough that we could jump over or a place where we could cross on a fallen tree. Unfortunately, we didn't find a place to cross so we headed back out the way we had come in, except we went out on the other side of Ice Lake so we could see Little Gibbon Falls. 

Wolf Lake

Emily, Me, and Erica at Wolf Lake

Little Gibbon Falls

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