That does sound inviting
What time of year were you there?
Bears when boating
In all my visits to Yellowstone, whether for hiking or kayaking, I never encountered a bear in either the backcountry or the human-infested areas.
BUT I have seen their scat there. My impression is that bear encounters are more likely near the SE portion of Yellowstone Lake than at Shoshone Lake. Also at Heart Lake, which is extremely popular for backpacking.
The bear attacks that’ve made the news seem to always involve backpackers.
Could it be that they’re not quite as careful about clean camp practices as the rangers tell them to be? Hmmm!
But you’ll definitely see people in summer. Whether YOU think it’s crowded or not depends on what you’re used to. Also depends on whether the big groups (outfitters) actually occupy those sites they book so far in advance, or whether they cancel the day before due to not having enough customers to fill that trip. It’s a crapshoot, and we can never be sure if we’ll see just a couple other backcountry campers or most sites we paddle by will be occupied.
um
I was there mid august. From there to end of October is awesome…no bugs, nice .lighting, temps, few people.
Actually the.bear incidents are not backpackers at all. I’ve had a few.friends attacked and mauled. The ones in the news the.last few years are either from hunters or tourist in and around their campers such as deaths last year and the Japanese man who provoked and ran. Backpackers are usually experienced, seasoned, knowledgeable than “tourist” etc.
If you want to hike you can get away and not see anyone. Read.Doug peacock s book “grizzly years”, he spent ten years in the baackcountry and didn’t see anyone.
Google “zenfolio.com” and in search box at bottom type in my name …Norman miller…my photo albums will come up and then click on " little red canoe" of pics.from paddling ystone lake this summer
After mid-August
…is better, for sure. Bugginess depends partly on how many frost nights have occurred.
But late July was more crowded, enough so that we vowed never to go then again.
The really disconcerting thing was hearing the Sturgis crowd’s motors from Shoshone Lake. Couldn’t hear normal traffic noise, just theirs.
runner up photo of the week
I got runner up photo of the week here…
its from Yellowstone Lake in August…
enjoy
http://www.paddling.net/page2.html
Nice!
Looks like a good way to see the park!