Watch for moose browsing in the sedge meadows and marshes along Pelican Creek flats as you approach Fishing Bridge. Exhibits at Fishing Bridge Museum feature the park's birds. Fishing Bridge itself spans the Yellowstone River, the lake's outlet. The bridge was closed to fishing in 1973. Fishing Bridge now offers one of the best wild trout spawning shows anywhere for most of the summer.
White pelicans feed on the native cut-throat trout.
Because of a high level of bear activity, only hard-sided units are allowed to camp in the Fishing Bridge area. Yellowstone Lake is North America's largest mountain lake. Over geological time it has drained into the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay, and now drains into the Atlantic via the Gulf of Mexico. The average depth is about 139 feet. Trout generally inhabit the upper 60 feet because their foods rarely occur below that depth.