Boulder: Coyote Lake and Blueberry Lake

Bridger-Teton National Forest

(red line, map link)

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4

I had had thoughts of taking one more day heading north on Fremont Trail (and the Continental Divide Trail), but it wasn't going to happen after all. I turned to head for the trailhead instead.

167: shortcut trail with a sign — The shortcut trail is signed on this end. Leaving North Fork Lake, seen between the hills.

But first, I was going to see what that black block on the map might be. There's a little bit of trail out to it, but I only caught that for the way back. There's a camp area that has been used by equestrians. Further into the trees is the old cabin.

170: log building with half the roof colapsed in — Maybe there was a guard station once. It looks like a rougher construction than those generally are.

Then I headed out to find the Highline Trail. It was ultimately under some trees making a sharp bend on its way down a hill to get to Lake Vera.

171: reflecting water with lily pads — Unnamed pond along the trail.

I turned the other way and headed for Macs Lake. It would be shorter to repeat some trail, but it wasn't necessary.

173: big chunk of granite — Granite domes on the way to more unnamed water.

174: bright yellow flowers — Tiny blueleaf cinquefoil are still pretty common in flower.

I was wondering when I'd hit burn again. It was staying on the other side of the canyon, mostly, but there was the burn.

175: pooling water by granite — Pretty pooling water and burned trees on the far side.

The sign for the junction with Ethel Lake Trail must have been lost in the fire, but the junction is nice and clear. It's another one I was giving a miss. I didn't go down to Macs Lake to find the benchmark near it, either. The important route the benchmarks follow must have gone that way before.

177: lake among chared trees — Macs Lake sits in a badly burned area.

178: pond full of lily pads — One of a pair of ponds with nearby camp sites.

179: bigger lake — Edmond Lake has even more camp sites.

180: GWM 16 — Added another benchmark to my collection of finds.

181: green water through the trees — Might be Lake George almost visible through the trees.

182: view across the distance to sharp peaks — The collection of peaks to the north seem a little more familiar than they probably are.

Past Lake George is a short stretch of Lake George Trail, which was missing its sign post fire. Still very obvious and well used. It got missed in the last round of trail work, though. It had 8 trees down on the just under 1 mile length. Crazily, I met equestrians who had just got around the most difficult tree. They had climbed a steep hill and I was stuck following their lead. The far end had a sign that was just a little charred at the bottom. I was at Coyote Lake and the start of the long downhill. Well, it takes a little bit longer to really get going down. Lakes first.

185: sparse trees around a lake didn't burn very badly — Arriving at Coyote Lake.

186: down on the water — Coyote Lake from near one of the camp sites.

From Lovatt Lake, the trail follows a burned ridge. A lot of the trees have fallen already and recent work had definitely been done on it. There was only one tree down on the whole stretch making it the cleanest trail of the loop. Still, I wouldn't have wanted to climb up it.

190: bit less burned look — A gully with the potential for water, but none today.

192: black bear print — Sharing the trail. I see bear prints first as an erasure of the more elaborate shoe prints before realizing the negative space is a print itself. These are just little black bear prints.

193: big lake and the vast flats beyond — First full view of Boulder Lake.

195: ranch and lake — Boulder Lake Ranch (right flats) and Soda Lake (left water).

197: lake through the trees — Arriving at Blueberry Lake.

Blueberry Lake is a destination for many people. I stopped for a little while beside the outlet. There were camp sites on the other side, to the west.

198: little fish — A multitude of little fish in the shallows.

199: water spread out from small rocks in the sand to low hills — A little of the spread of water of Blueberry Lake.

200: snake resting in the water — The garter snake came swimming across the water and rested on a rock just short of the shore.

I still had 2 miles to go, so I eventually got going. There was less burn damage lower down.

201: wilderness sign — Bears have been scratching at the Bridger Wilderness Sign.

204: grouse with a fluffy neck — A new rather fancy grouse: ruffed grouse.

There are trails connecting with the campground at the end of the loop. It seemed crowded for the evening, so I elected to take the longer way around the campground to the signed junction before climbing back up the hill to the corral parking. I'd seen four groups the first day, two the next, and one each the last two days. It's not lonely, but it sure is less crowded leaving from Boulder Lake.

*Bridger 2022 photo album*

©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 23 Nov 2022

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