Isa Lake, Continental Divide, Yellowstone Nat. Park, Wyo.

Publication

Isa Lake, Continental Divide, Yellowstone Nat. Park, Wyo.

Description

ISA LAKE, CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, YELLOWSTONE NAT. PARK, WYO. The drive from Upper Geyser Basin to Yellowstone Lake, in which we twice across the Continental Divide, is one of the most interesting that we enjoy in touring the Park. A short distance beyond the branch road leading to Lone Star Geyser we enter Spring Creek Canyon and follow its picturesque windings until at 7 miles from Kepler Cascade, we reach Isa Lake, precisly on the summit of the Continental Divide. It is an impressive spot in which to realize that we are standing on the height of land separating the Atlantic from the Pacific, for Lake Isa itself. with outlets at each end, contributes its waters to both oceans. This charming little lake, shyly hidden among the pine forests, is about 8,261 ft. above sea level and owing to the tortuous forms of the watersheds in its vicinity, the drainage from its eastern end feeds streams which find their way to the Pacific while that from its western end reaches the Firehole and thence the Missouri and the eastern sea. The lodgepole pines which we see growing all about lake Isa are typical of great areas of the Park, four-fifths of the area of which is under timber. Seventy-five per cent of this timber consists of lodgepole pins which, though of little value for lumber are useful for the building of log structures. The ranger stations throughout the Park as well as Old Faithful Inn and a great many other buildings are made of lodgepole pine logs. Other common trees are the whitebark pine, Douglas fir and Engelman spruce, balsam, juniper, aspen and, at the lower altitudes, the narrow-leaved cottonwood and the limber pine. (Lat. 44° N.; Long. 111° W.)