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Photo: RG Johnsson, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Lying in the Snake River watershed west of Lewis Lake and south of Yellowstone Lake, Heart Lake was named sometime before 1871 for Hart Hunney, an early hunter.
Heart Lake el. 7,461 feet (2,274 m) is a large backcountry lake, nestled at the base of Mount Sheridan in Yellowstone National Park. Heart Lake is in the Snake River drainage and is drained by the Heart River.
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This small range of mountains, just west of Heart Lake, is completely contained within the boundaries of the park. The name of the range comes from the color of the volcanic rocks which compose them. There are 12 peaks in the range, with 10308 ft Mount Sheridan being the highest.
Built in 1925, with the open breezeway enclosed in 1966, the West Thumb Ranger Station is an excellent example of historic architecture associated with ranger stations in Yellowstone.
This geyser basin is situated along the shore for a distance of 2 mi, extending back from it about 500 yd and into the lake perhaps as many feet. There are several hundred springs here, varying in size from miniature fountains to pools or wells 75 ft in diameter and of great depth. Additionally, a small cluster of mud springs. Of particular note, the Abyss Pool offers an optical illusion that makes it look bottomless, and Fishing Cone is an offshore pool which was once popular as a spot to cook newly-caught fish by dipping them into this partially submerged hot spring. (This stunt is no longer allowed.).
This lake is the park's second largest lake and is at the head of the Lewis River southwest of West Thumb. Shoshone Lake is 205 ft at its maximum depth and has an area of 8050 acre. Shoshone Lake used to be barren of fish owing to waterfalls on the Lewis River, but today the lake contains introduced lake trout, brown trout, and Utah chubs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes that Shoshone Lake may be the largest lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by road. No motorboats are allowed on the lake.
Like Lake Village and Fishing Village, this area provides access to North America's largest high elevation lake. The topmost layers of the lake rarely exceeds , and the lower layers are much colder; because of the extremely cold water, swimming is not recommended.
With a surface area of 132 mi2, Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake at high elevation (more than 7,000 ft) in North America. It is a natural lake, situated at 7,733 ft above sea level. It is roughly 20 mi long and 15 mi wide with 141 mi of shoreline. It is frozen nearly half the year. It freezes in late December or early January and thaws in late May or early June.