YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Yellowstone National Park’s second largest lake offers paddlers a chance to cruise clear alpine waters and camp in the pines while conversing with raucous ravens and loudly protesting squirrels.

Although these activities may be common to other waters, Shoshone Lake also has the added cachet of a backcountry geyser basin that warms a creek where large red dragonflies zing through the air like scarlet darts.

Measuring about 12.5 square miles, Shoshone Lake is only one-tenth the size of its larger and more famous neighbor, Yellowstone Lake. But what it lacks in volume Shoshone makes up for with a sense of serene seclusion since its inaccessible from a road and closed to motorized boats.

Paddling to paradise

To reach Shoshone, paddlers must first cross Lewis Lak

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