Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1912. 
VOL. LXXVIII.—No. 18. 
1S7 Franklin St., New York 
A Heart Lake Trip 
By WALTER B. SHEPPARD 
T he trail to Heart Lake, in Yellowstone 
Park, from the north drops down to the 
lake along its only considerable inlet, 
through a weird region. Alongside, and in sight 
of the trail for several miles, there are literally 
hundreds, if not thousands, of boiling springs, 
and not a few geysers, dotting an area of hun- 
. dreds of acres. The lake at the upper end is 
perceptibly warm and the inlet for a large part 
of its course is as hot 
as one would choose 
to have his bath at 
home. In fact, dili¬ 
gent search failed to 
reveal a spring cool 
« 
enough to bathe in. 
We camped near 
the beach, a delight¬ 
ful stretch of smooth, 
white sand, long in- 
frequented. Many 
years had apparently 
passed since anyone 
had stopped there, 
even the chopped 
stumps having rotted 
off at the base. 
Across the end of the 
lake and in sight of 
our camp were two 
very considerable 
geysers, whose rising 
vapor never ceased. 
One of the geysers 
spouted every thirty- 
one minutes. Though 
not a large one. it 
seemed more beauti¬ 
ful even than Old 
Faithful, which, giant though it be, loses some¬ 
thing of its beauty, when surrounded by a crowd 
of sightseers. 
The other geyser had an interval so long that 
one never caught it, but it was a big fellow. The 
accompanying photograph shows its mouth or 
basin. No one can describe the clearness of the 
water nor the wealth of coloring in the calcare¬ 
ous deposit with which each geyser crater is lined. 
A geyser in action is an impressive spectacle; 
even a hot spring always excites my wonder. 
For while the spouting is in accordance with 
well-known physical laws, and can be reproduced 
experimentally in the laboratory, the source of 
the tremendous heat is the puzzle. Doubtless the 
latest theory that ascribes it to the transforma¬ 
tion of radium is the most satisfactory. 
Heart Lake is a perfect gem, as will appear 
from the accompanying photograph. Being off 
the beaten highway, it cannot be visited without 
special permission. It is a wise provision to 
keep the average park visitor upon the stragiht 
and narrow way, for if every chance comer were 
allowed to wander promiscuously through the 
park, there would be no end of trouble with 
forest fires, game destruction and the like. For 
SHERIDAN MOUNTAIN AND HEART LAKE, IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
the park is as a whole densely timbered, and 
the average camper extremely careless about fires, 
albeit the most reckless of all people in the hills, 
as regards fire, is the old-timer, the man who 
above all others should know and do better. 
Not all are that way, however. One of the 
best trips I ever had was with a Colorado man 
whose fear of fire amounted almost to an obses¬ 
sion. Once with a large party he had come back 
to camp at night to find that a neglected camp¬ 
fire had burned up tent, bedding, grub and all. 
They were not only without food or shelter, but 
the fire had burned the picket ropes from their 
horses, so that most of them had gone home. 
That man’s painstaking was so painfully meticu¬ 
lous that it made me nervous. 
Our camp was at the edge of bush meadows 
where our pack horses fairly luxuriated. Nor 
were they alone; every night and morning we 
saw deer or elk or both from our tent door. And 
there was plentiful moose and buffalo sign, 
though sign was all we saw. 
The truth is, the park is comparatively barren 
of game. For one thing, the snow lies too deep 
in winter, and the winters are too long. The 
tourist sees the bears around the hotels and the 
tame deer and buffalo 
.. on their feed grounds 
V •?!»* and imagines that the 
whole region is filled 
with wild creatures. 
But such is far from 
being the case. Away 
from the hotel gar¬ 
bage heaps, bears are 
very scarce, much 
scarcer even than 
they are outside of 
the park to the south 
on the Wyoming 
game preserve. And 
there are probably 
five times as many elk 
east of Jackson Hole 
as in the park. The 
fact is, all game in 
Wyoming is nearing 
extermination, and 
the reports of its ex¬ 
ceeding plentifulness 
are greatly exagger¬ 
ated, when they are 
not actually manu¬ 
factured. The sheep¬ 
men long to possess 
all the mountain coun¬ 
try, and the fruition of their desire is prevented 
by the presence of the game. All the game coun¬ 
try is within the confines of some one or other 
of the National forests, and thus under control. 
As a matter of fact, sheep are so destructive to 
all vegetation that they should never be allowed 
in any National forest. Where they are nothing 
else can live, tame or wild. 
During July and August, Northwestern Wyo¬ 
ming in and about the park is one of the love¬ 
liest mountain regions in America. It is one of 
the few spots where one can get away from the 
tin-can and the person who carves his name on 
every smooth quaking aspen. The woods are 
still pristine, and the game still comparatively 
tame from lack of pursuit. The timber is mostly 
lodge-pole pine, interspersed with pretty parks. 
