Yellowstone Lake--preferred anchor?

[Ken O]

What works and what doesn't work on Yellowstone Lake? If the bottom is like much of the shoreline, it would be volcanic sand. I have a Bruce (claw) and a Danforth, and 2 rodes of 30 ft. chain and 300 ft. nylon.

[jkidd]

I think either of those will work. I use a Manson Boss. You will need a back country permit to stay over night on the lake. They have docks around the lake that you can stay at over night. If you have pets you can’t stay over night. I’m not sure if you can just anchor out any where over night. Maybe someone will chime in on that. There are places on the lake where you can’t anchor.

[Hunkydory]

Just like the backcountry lake camp sites, the anchor areas are designated & overnight permit required. Last year with COVID the permit process was difficult to do for the back country. I’m hoping the process will either be improved or back to normal this summer. Bridge Bay Marina is a great place to spend either a few days or the the entire season. The rate for 30 days or more is half of the daily rate, so we normally do 30 days or more.

The lake bottom has good holding for most any normal anchor with the exception of mid to late summer, when the shallow areas have a rapid thick growth of water weed, which can make holding on most any anchor poor. Even my 25 pound Manson Boss in these areas would tend to pull out with large clumps of mixed weed & bottom when trying to set.

Jay

[Ken O]

Thanks for the info. Since it looks like can't get our C-22 to Juneau this year, we settled for spending the summer in Bridge Bay marina. We can get walk-up permits for the backcountry sites as they keep 1/3 of the sites for walk-ups. Thanks for the note on the weeds. I wasn't expecting that.

Jay--Can I ask what anchor you kept in the bow roller in Southeast Alaska, and how often did you use that 25 lb. Manson in Southeast?

[Hunkydory]

The 25 # Manson Boss with 50 feet of chain is the set up, we have used on our last three extended SE Alaska cruises with the majority of nights & many different times during the days using the anchor. Our spare is a 15# Manson Supreme & for a CD22 a very good all around anchor. The 25# Boss is definitely overkill & not necessarily needed, but when well set in a good bottom, I’m normally comfortable with a 3 to 1 scope & seldom do checks during the night, while sleeping soundly.

Before purchasing & installing a Windless, we used a 22# Claw with 25 feet of chain for the 5 previous SE Alaska cruises. It worked well overall, but in my experience much harder to set & hold in the different SE Alaska bottoms with not even being close to the ability of either the Manson Surpreme, Boss or I think the other later types similar.

Jay

[Ken O]

Thanks Jay. This helps a bunch.