Lake Butte Overlook

Lake Butte Overlook is a drive-up viewpoint above Yellowstone Lake’s northeast shore, reached by a short, steep paved spur from the East Entrance Road. It’s a good choice when you want the lake’s broad, island-studded view without taking on a hike. A brief walk leads from the small hilltop parking area to the main outlook, and there’s a vault toilet. This road segment is seasonal: regular vehicle access generally runs from May through October, then ends for the winter road season.

The lake spreads out below with wooded islands and a long, forested shoreline. Sunset is a particularly worthwhile time here; on clear days, you can pick out the Grand Teton to the south. For a photo, include an island or the burned tree trunks along the slope rather than filling the frame with water. That gives the enormous lake a sense of scale.

Yellowstone Lake sits at 7,733 feet, covers 132 square miles, and has 141 miles of shoreline. It’s the largest lake in North America above 7,000 feet. The lake usually freezes by late December or early January and thaws in late May or early June, so this view can turn from open water to a white basin for much of the winter.

Yellowstone Lake supports North America’s largest wild population of cutthroat trout. The native fish became isolated after the lake once drained west toward the Pacific by way of Outlet Canyon and the Snake River; they may have crossed the Continental Divide at Two Ocean Pass. Introduced lake trout now threaten the cutthroat.

Exploration of the lake bottom has found hydrothermal features, mineral-rich vents, and deep canyons. One canyon east of Stevenson Island reaches 390 feet deep, deeper than the known depth at West Thumb when it was discovered.

Maps once called it Eustis Lake and Sublette Lake, among other names. In 1871, the Hayden Survey sailed the Anna, the first boat recorded on Yellowstone Lake.