Trout Lake Trail - Yellowstone, WY

Overview
Delightful short walk around a scenic alpine lake surrounded by mountains and meadows.


Hike
The Trout Lake Trailhead is directly off the northeast entrance road to Yellowstone. There is maybe 8ish parking spaces. The trail immediately starts uphill through a lush green and grassy area. It's a bit steep, but short. The uphill ends at the lake. The trail circles the lake and can be taken in either direction. The lake is enchanting, clear, and surrounded by mountains.At about 1/3 of the way around the lake, going counterclockwise, is a stream. In the spring, many, many native cutthroat trout are jumping their way upstream to spawn. It is something to see! The fish are quite long and very colorful with their red throats. There is no right next to the stream, but there is fishing allowed around the rest of the lake.

While reading about this hike, the guidebook also suggested visiting the nearby Shrimp and Buck lakes. There is no established trail to either, but the area has quite a bit of meadows, and I believe it would be low effort to head over to the other lakes. The area is very beautiful. We weren't able to visit the other lakes on this trip, but I look forward to seeing them in the future!

Something else neat about this trail is the plethora of purple clematis. It is a beautiful flower, rather strange and different in form from other wild flowers that I have seen. This is the only place that I saw purple clematis within Yellowstone, so it is not super common. There was quite a bit of it in the section of trail from the entry trail going clockwise, in the area within the trees.

This is an enjoyable, quick hike in a beautiful area.

2025-07-04 Vashti