United States · US

Plateau Lake

Plateau Lake is a small, high-elevation backcountry lake sitting on the rolling Madison Plateau in the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park, around 8,825 feet (2,690 m) above sea level. It has no road, no signpost and no maintained trail leading to its shore; the only way to stand beside it is to earn your way there on foot, navigating open meadow, burn-scarred plateau and boggy ground by map and route-finding rather than following blazes. This is a destination for seasoned hikers and backpackers who want a quiet, hard-to-reach piece of Yellowstone away from the geyser basins — a place where wildflowers, pikas, wide skies and the memory of the 1988 fires tell the story instead of a visitor center.