{"id":1287,"date":"2015-07-30T08:10:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T14:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2019-03-16T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T16:47:11","slug":"frozen-lake-to-heart-lake-beartooth-mountains-7-14-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1287","title":{"rendered":"Frozen Lake to Heart Lake, Beartooth Mountains (7-14-13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lupe started this hike in the Beartooth Mountains of NW Wyoming from a trailhead located\u00a0just to\u00a0the SE of Long Lake and Beartooth Highway No. 212.\u00a0 This may well be the trailhead for the Beartooth Loop National Recreational Trail, but Lupe didn’t follow that trail.\u00a0 Instead she crossed to the N of Hwy 212 where her wanderings among many beautiful high country lakes took place.\u00a0 The trailhead is about 3 miles E of the Top of the World Store & Motel or 2 miles E of the Island Lake Campground.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a topo map of the area, click this link to Lonesome Mountain<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on Peakbagger.com and scroll the topo map to the SE.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the splendid, but long, trek to Two Bits Lake on 7-12-13, Lupe and SPHP had arrived back at camp on the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River after midnight.\u00a0 SPHP had been simply too tired to get out of the G6 and set things up in the tent, so Lupe and SPHP had spent the night in the G6 once again.<\/p>\n

\"Sorry<\/a>
Sorry SPHP, you can forget about any hikes today. I’m snoozing in!\u00a0 Let me know when the beef stew is ready.\u00a0 In fact, just bring it here.\u00a0 Breakfast in bed sounds good.\u00a0 7-13-13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It had been a tough night.\u00a0 SPHP woke to the sound of Lupe licking her sore paws in the darkness, and then had trouble getting back to sleep.\u00a0 SPHP’s feet were cold, wet, and still in the hiking boots SPHP hadn’t even bothered to remove.\u00a0 (Both a miserable situation and\u00a0a very bad idea!)\u00a0 Eventually sleep returned.\u00a0 Later a gorgeous morning arrived.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pilot Peak (L) and Index Peak (R) from Lupe’s “tiny house” on the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River 7-13-13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Clark's<\/a>
Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River close to camp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPHP finally got up somewhere around 8 AM.\u00a0 The sun was already\u00a0up and shining on the beautiful\u00a0river.\u00a0 SPHP cooked some beef stew for Lupe.\u00a0 Lupe was so, well, dog-tired that she hadn’t even gotten out of the G6.\u00a0 SPHP had to feed the beef stew to her.\u00a0 She really did enjoy it though, once she got going on it.\u00a0 She ate most of the can.\u00a0 SPHP polished off the rest.<\/p>\n

\"Pilot<\/a>
Pilot<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (11,699 ft.)<\/strong><\/span> & Index<\/span><\/a> (11,240 ft.)<\/span> Peaks<\/span><\/strong> (L to R) from camp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After 3 days of non-stop activity, SPHP decided this 4th day of Lupe’s 2013 Dingo Vacation\u00a0would have to be a rest day in camp to recuperate.\u00a0 SPHP cleaned and organized.\u00a0 Lupe snoozed fitfully in the G6.\u00a0 Later on, she wanted to get in the “tiny house” (tent), where she snoozed some more.\u00a0 SPHP joined her in the tent to snack, look at maps, and take a siesta.\u00a0 About mid-afternoon there was a trip to Cooke City, MT to charge up the camera battery.\u00a0 The evening was spent pleasantly at camp, and a much more comfortable night was spent in\u00a0Lupe’s “tiny house”.<\/p>\n

After the big rest day,\u00a07-14-13 was destined to be an action day!\u00a0 SPHP had decided Lupe should go explore around some of the alpine lakes NE of Island Lake.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe set off about 10:05 AM under beautiful blue skies.\u00a0 The temperature was an ideal 60\u00b0F.\u00a0 Lupe liked the open ground and ran about sniffing happily.\u00a0\u00a0She\u00a0crossed Beartooth Hwy No. 212 and made for the N end of Long Lake.<\/p>\n

Everything was great until\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0reached a creek coming in from the E down to the N end of Long Lake.\u00a0 It wasn’t very large and took only a couple of stepping stones to cross it.\u00a0 However, the first stone\u00a0SPHP stepped on proved slippery.\u00a0 SPHP got instantly dumped in the creek.\u00a0 Sopping wet from the waist down, (sitting in a creek does that to you) SPHP was unharmed.\u00a0 SPHP\u00a0scrambled out of the creek and marched on soggily.\u00a0 The sun would eventually dry\u00a0SPHP off.<\/p>\n

SPHP\u00a0decided to head for Frozen Lake instead of Lower Sheepherder Lake.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP\u00a0climbed a good bit and were starting to get some good views, when\u00a0SPHP discovered the next tragedy –\u00a0SPHP had forgotten to bring the camera.\u00a0 After a brief debate,\u00a0SPHP decided not to go all the way back to the G6 to get it.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe\u00a0continued on up towards Frozen Lake a bit longer when\u00a0SPHP discovered another problem.\u00a0\u00a0SPHP had lost\u00a0the tall blue\u00a0water bottle out of\u00a0the backpack\u00a0falling in the creek.<\/p>\n

The water bottle was a loss SPHP\u00a0could not afford.\u00a0 Running out of water would\u00a0make for a horrible\u00a0day.\u00a0 So back down to the creek\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0went, losing hundreds of feet of precious\u00a0elevation gain.\u00a0 When Lupe got back\u00a0to the creek,\u00a0SPHP spotted\u00a0the\u00a0tall blue water bottle floating in it\u00a0maybe 15 feet downstream\u00a0of\u00a0where\u00a0SPHP had fallen in.\u00a0SPHP nearly fell in again trying to reach it to get it out.\u00a0 After SPHP retrieved the tall blue water bottle,\u00a0SPHP decided\u00a0Lupe may as well go all the rest of the way back to the G6 and get the camera, too.<\/p>\n

So around 11:30 AM, Lupe and SPHP once again set out from the G6 for Frozen Lake.\u00a0Arriving back\u00a0at the creek at the N end of Long Lake, footing once again proved tricky for SPHP.\u00a0 SPHP narrowly escaped another dunking.\u00a0 Lupe must have wondered what was going on.\u00a0 Although she likes to wade in streams, ordinarily SPHP doesn’t splash around like this.\u00a0\u00a0SPHP decided to\u00a0christen this small stream “Dump Me Creek”.<\/p>\n

This time, Lupe and SPHP\u00a0managed to get all the way up to the S shore of\u00a0Frozen Lake without further surprises.\u00a0\u00a0Three\u00a0men were along the W shore.\u00a0 They must have hiked down from Hwy 212, which was just a short distance E of Frozen Lake, but considerably above it.\u00a0\u00a0 From Frozen Lake, Lupe and SPHP\u00a0climbed and headed NW, avoiding the\u00a0three men who had by now moved to the N end of Frozen Lake.\u00a0 They were the only people\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0saw until getting back close to Hwy 212 at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

\"Frozen<\/a>
Frozen Lake in the Beartooth Mountains. Photo looks N.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of\u00a0this day’s\u00a0explorations were spent just wandering.\u00a0 There were no trails.\u00a0 SPHP navigated by topo map.\u00a0 There were so many little lakes around, at times it was a bit confusing.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0visited Lower Sheepherder Lake, Upper Sheepherder Lake, Snyder Lake, Z Lake, Lake Promise, Heart Lake and saw quite a few smaller lakes not named on\u00a0the map.<\/p>\n

\"Unnamed<\/a>
Unnamed Lakes S of Lower Sheepherder Lake. Photo taken from between Frozen Lake and Lower Sheepherder Lake. Photo looks SSW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lupe SE of Upper Sheepherder Lake in the Beartooth Mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Upper<\/a>
Upper Sheepherder Lake. Photo looks NW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Z<\/a>
Z Lake. Photo looks SW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ack,<\/a>
Ack, it’s National Mosquito Day! Let’s get going!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Snow<\/a>
Snow on ridge NW of Lake Promise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"More<\/a>
More snow on ridge NW of Lake Promise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lake<\/a>
Lake Promise from the NNW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe at the overlook above Lake Promise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The prettiest lake was a small unnamed lake above and NE of Heart Lake.\u00a0 This lake was tucked in a corner of the bare higher ridge to the N and E.\u00a0 There was a fair amount of snow still around there.\u00a0 Lupe’s\u00a0highest elevation reached was around 10,600 feet in the vicinity of Lake Promise and the little snowy lake, where\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0climbed considerably above both lakes.\u00a0 That area was\u00a0well above tree line, and Lupe and SPHP’s favorite part of the journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
High country NW of Lake Promise on the way to the pretty unnamed lake NE of Heart Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Between Lake Promise and Heart Lake in the Beartooth Mountains. Photo looks WSW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lupe approaching the pretty little lake NE of Heart Lake. Photo looks NW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Unnamed<\/a>
Lupe on the snow coming towards the camera. Lupe loves snow!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"SPHP's<\/a>
Pretty unnamed lake NE of Heart Lake in the Beartooth Mountains 7-14-13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPHP\u00a0had hoped\u00a0Lupe would get to\u00a0go to Snow Lake and Wall Lake, both farther NW toward Becker Lake, but too much time had been lost by SPHP getting dumped in Dump Me Creek and\u00a0losing the water bottle, compounded by\u00a0forgetting the camera.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe did scramble clear around the N & W sides of Heart Lake over the debris of a collapsed mountainside, before following the outlet stream S down a steep canyon.<\/p>\n

\"Heart<\/a>
Heart Lake from the NE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The view S before descending from Heart Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite\u00a0the self-inflicted problems early on with\u00a0Dump Me Creek\u00a0and the camera, the most vexing problem\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0faced this day\u00a0was the endless horde of mosquitoes encountered.\u00a0 The mosquitoes weren’t a problem until\u00a0after Lupe\u00a0left Frozen Lake and approached the Sheepherder Lakes.\u00a0 Lupe escaped them to some degree above Lake Promise and Heart Lake, but elsewhere they forced Lupe and SPHP to stay continually on the move to avoid falling prey to them.\u00a0 SPHP designated July 14th as National Mosquito Day.\u00a0 Both Lupe and SPHP sincerely hoped the festivities would be completely over and done with by the next day.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the day, Lupe and SPHP\u00a0headed back down to the G6 tramping through the forest E of Night Lake, Island Lake and Little Bear Lake to\u00a0arrive at Hwy 212 just E of Little Bear Lake.\u00a0 Lupe then followed Hwy 212\u00a0E back to the G6.\u00a0 It was 8:28 PM when she arrived.\u00a0 The sun was still up, but in the process of setting.\u00a0 On\u00a0the way W\u00a0back to camp,\u00a0SPHP stopped at a turnout.\u00a0 There Lupe and SPHP watched the golden glow of the sunset fading away just to the N of Pilot and Index Peaks.<\/p>\n

\"Pilot<\/a>
Pilot Peak (L) and Index Peak (R) at sunset, Beartooth Mountains, WY 7-14-13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Adventure<\/a> <\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Prior Adventure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2013 Beartooths & Canadian Rockies Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lupe started this hike in the Beartooth Mountains of NW Wyoming from a trailhead located\u00a0just to\u00a0the SE of Long Lake and Beartooth Highway No. 212.\u00a0 This may well be the trailhead for the Beartooth Loop National Recreational Trail, but Lupe didn’t follow that trail.\u00a0 Instead she crossed to the N of Hwy 212 where her … Continue reading Frozen Lake to Heart Lake, Beartooth Mountains (7-14-13)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[105,182,106,26,200,201,202,104,205,203,275,204],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2013-beartoothscanadian-rockies","tag-american-dingo","tag-beartooth-mountains","tag-carolina-dog","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-frozen-lake","tag-heart-lake","tag-lake-promise","tag-lupe","tag-snyder-lake","tag-upper-lower-sheepherder-lakes","tag-wyoming","tag-z-lake"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/P1040930.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20781,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/20781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}