Delusion Lake - Yellowstone National Park - 8/2/15

scatman

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After picking up my son at Island Park, my family along with @McGimpkins headed into Yellowstone for four nights at the Grant Village campground with the intention of doing three day hikes: the first, joined by @langutah , to Delusion Lake, the second, to Sentinel Meadows and Queen's Laundry, and the last to Beach Lake then on to Dryad Lake before exiting at Natural Bridge.

Day Hike #1 - Delusion Lake

Delusion Lake comes by its name from early explores of the area mistakenly thinking that it was an arm of Yellowstone Lake but indeed it is its own separate entity. The lake is approximately .4 miles across and 2.4 miles in length. Other than the first two miles and the end along a road, the rest of our hike was off-trail.

We hit the Riddle Lake Trailhead just after 7:30 in the morning ready to day hike to seldom visited Delusion Lake. Our route would take us two miles down the Riddle Lake Trail to Riddle Lake. Once at the lake, we would find the outlet and follow the meadows along Solution Creek for approximately 3.6 miles where we would bushwhack through some burn before hitting a second set of meadows that run to the northeast and lead essentially to Delusion Lake. Our return would consist of hiking through burn for about a mile before hooking up with Solution Creek again and then following the creek to Yellowstone Lake. Once at the lake, we would follow the shoreline back to Grant Village if possible or hop up on the road near the water treatment plant and wind our way back to our campground.

delusion_lake-jpg.24644.jpgOverview map of day hike #1

DEL01.jpgScatman , @McGimpkins , @langutah and Scatman Jr. at the trailhead

We made good time along the trail heading to Riddle Lake. At the lake, we were fortunate to see some trumpeter swans on the lake. Riddle Lake itself had many lily pads along the eastern shore and Mount Sheridan loomed over the lake to the south.

DEL02.jpg
Meadows along the Riddle Lake Trail

DEL04.jpg Lily pads on Riddle Lake

DEL05.jpgMount Sheridan, south of Riddle Lake

As we approached the outlet of the lake, we saw a swan nesting on the shore, thus we gave her a wide berth as not to disturb her. Arriving at the outlet, we began to follow what turned out to be a dry at this point Solution Creek. We hiked through the meadows along the creek for 3.6 miles, occasionally surprising pairs of sandhill cranes and often getting glimpses of soaring hawks.

DEL10.jpgThe meadows along Solution Creek

DEL13.jpgElk skull and antlers

DEL15.jpgMount Sheridan

At this point, we turned to the east for a half mile of bushwhacking through old burn and new growth
until we reached another set of meadows that would lead us to Delusion Lake.

DEL17.jpgMaking our way through the old burn

DEL18.jpg Emerging from the burn into the meadows that would lead us to Delusion Lake

After a quick break, we still had two miles of meadow walking to reach the lake. On our maps, these meadows were marked as marshy, but they turned out out be dry though walking through them was more difficult than it would seem due to uneven footing. Soon enough we got our first sight of Delusion Lake where we would stop and rest, eat lunch, refill our water bottles and take some photos of the lake. Again, like Riddle Lake there were a tremendous amount of lily pads along the western edge of the lake.

DEL19.jpgHiking through the meadows towards Delusion Lake

DEL20.jpgFirst glimpse of Delusion Lake

DEL22.jpgLily pads cover a western finger of the lake

DEL28.jpgDelusion Lake with the hazy Absarokas to the east

DEL27.jpg
@langutah , kind enough to fill everyone's water bottles.

DEL30.jpgGroup shot at Delusion Lake

After leaving the lake, it was back to trudging through burn for another mile before once again reaching Solution Creek. Once at the creek, it was a little less than a mile to Yellowstone Lake where we began hiking along the shoreline back to Grant Village. About one mile from the Village, we left the shoreline and hiked up to the old waste water treatment facility where we jumped on the road and followed it back to our campsite at the campground.

DEL34.jpgNegotiating the old burn and new growth once again

DEL35.jpg
Back on Solution Creek

DEL36.jpg
Hiking along Solution Creek

DEL37.jpgWhere Solution Creek flows into Yellowstone Lake

DEL38.jpgA Bald Eagle

DEL39.jpg
Arriving at Yellowstone Lake

DEL40.jpg@langutah taking the direct route (across the water) to our campsite at Grant Village

DEL41.jpgThe shoreline of Yellowstone Lake

DEL42.jpg
Snags along the shore of Yellowstone Lake

DEL43.jpg
Old waste water treatment facility at Grant Village

Well, a great day hike I do believe. I'm guessing we went a touch over 15 miles with all the zigging and zagging that we ended up doing. Plus everybody chipped in when we had to backtrack for my point and shoot camera that I lost. I'm still pissed about that by the way. :stomp: The sun was out all day and I thought it got pretty hot into the afternoon which slowed me down some. This led to some concern for me about our long hike to Dryad Lake on day three.

As far as wildlife was concerned, we managed to see the two swans along with numerous sandhill cranes that seemed to appear around every bend in the meadows, a number of hawks, canadian geese, ducks, a bald eagle and one deer.

Featured image for home page:
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w00t! A new TR from the Scat! Now I have to go read it...
 
Wish I could have made the trip with you guys Hugh. Stupid family reunions.
I look forward to the other 2 hike reports if you post them.
 
Great pics and great account. Now that I have done my first major, off-piste hike with you I know how to gage your narrative. You make it sound easy - I guess because you are so strong. The hike was a bit of a butt-buster due to all the deadfall, aka burn, aka new growth in burn. It made it hard to concentrate on my singing to the bears - or to see them for that matter :)

Example:
burn.jpg
 
Next year we'll be calling "Scatman Jr" "Scatman the Taller".

Sandhill cranes -- I can never get enough.

Great picture of Sheridan behind the Lake!

That uneven footing is pretty brutal -- tires my ankles.

Lost camera -- bummer! I think Jr lost one a couple years ago too :(

Did @langutah survive the short cut?
 
Survivor langutah says "Scat! get over the camera by getting a M4/3 like mine - not much bigger and not much heavier than your lost soul and you are strong like bull anyway. Then you can shoot in RAW - you owe it to yourself - you got the chops, you go the right places and you deserve the right equipment" :moses:
 
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Next year we'll be calling "Scatman Jr" "Scatman the Taller".

No kiddin' ! I will then be the smallest by a mile. I had trouble enough staying in the lead as it was.
 
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Wish I could have made the trip with you guys Hugh. Stupid family reunions.
I look forward to the other 2 hike reports if you post them.

Not a problem Donnie. We had to change our plans for the second day because I didn't think my wife and daughter could make it to DeLacy Lakes with all the bushwhacking involved. So we went to Queens Laundry instead. That means I'll have to try for Delacy Lakes again in the future. I also need to seek out the Howard Eaton between Blacktail Pond and Garnett Hill. You are more than welcome to join me on these if you would like.

Great pics and great account. Now that I have done my first major, off-piste hike with you I know how to gage your narrative. You make it sound easy - I guess because you are so strong. The hike was a bit of a butt-buster due to all the deadfall, aka burn, aka new growth in burn. It made it hard to concentrate on my singing to the bears - or to see them for that matter :)

Strong my ass Mr. Point Man! You'll have to post some more of your pictures in this thread so I can see how tired I really looked. :sleep:

Next year we'll be calling "Scatman Jr" "Scatman the Taller".

Sandhill cranes -- I can never get enough.

Great picture of Sheridan behind the Lake!

That uneven footing is pretty brutal -- tires my ankles.

Lost camera -- bummer! I think Jr lost one a couple years ago too :(

Did @langutah survive the short cut?

I think Scatman Jr. has topped out.

This is the hike for you if you like sandhill cranes.

I've lost more gear in the Yellowstone backcountry than I can shake a stick at. I'm sure one could outfit themselves for a full backpacking trip if they could gather up all of what I've lost in the Park.

@langutah made it all the way across West Thumb! Almost looked like he was walking on water form a distance. Pretty impressive I have to say.

Survivor langutah says "Scat! get over the camera by getting a M4/3 like mine - not much bigger and not much heavier than your lost soul and you are strong like bull anyway. Then you can shoot in RAW - you owe it to yourself - you got the chops, you go the right places and you deserve the right equipment" :moses:

My current camera takes RAW, but I'll investigate the M4/3.
 
Whens Ryan's Delusion Lake brew going to be ready? Was the Riddle Lake trail open? Glad you guys had a safe hike. Great photos as always.
 
Whens Ryan's Delusion Lake brew going to be ready? Was the Riddle Lake trail open? Glad you guys had a safe hike. Great photos as always.

Ryan's Delusion Lake brew: I hate to break it to you but I saw them robbing the quart of Delusion Lake water on the trudge out for survival purposes. I don't know how much made it to brew beer.

Riddle Lake trail: I take the fifth amendment....
 

I just assumed you were in. :)

Whens Ryan's Delusion Lake brew going to be ready? Was the Riddle Lake trail open? Glad you guys had a safe hike. Great photos as always.

It could take him awhile. He has come down with Gout. He can hardly walk. His beer days might be curtailed. Another Scatman hiker bites the dust. :cry:


Ryan's Delusion Lake brew: I hate to break it to you but I saw them robbing the quart of Delusion Lake water on the trudge out for survival purposes. I don't know how much made it to brew beer.

No, I got after him for attempting to, but then offered up some of mine instead. Delusion Porter is on its way!

Nice report and pics @scatman. I really need to make it out to Yellowstone one day.

Indeed you do @Vegan.Hiker .
 
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