Asteroid Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 46 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with the last 3 miles cross-country from Lake Surrender. No trail.
Elevation: 9,453 feet
Fish: Golden trout, common and stocked. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.27134, -110.01458
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

FWP's directions are short: trails to Lake Surrender, then cross-country southeast three miles. No trail.

Asteroid sits three tenths of a mile south of Comet and 106 feet above it. We reached it about an hour and a half out from camp, twelve minutes past Comet, and it was the middle of the day for us — everything above it runs off this pocket, and we were in and out of its ground for better than two hours.

They also list Woodbine at 13 miles, but only 7 on trail, and Initial Creek at 22.

The hike

Asteroid is small, 3.2 acres, but 40 feet at the deepest with a 17-foot average.

The goldens were put here for a reason. FWP's note says the intent of the plant was to let them move downstream, and the lake has a good outlet for spawning with nice gravel and a good food base with plenty of aquatic invertebrates. It gets 320 fish every six or seven years, most recently 2024, with the next due in 2030.

What that produces is unclear. FWP's 2018 survey caught exactly one fish, a 13.9-inch golden. Back in 1994 they got 18 averaging 8.4 inches and running to 12.6. So the fish are growing, and there are fewer of them.

FWP calls the camping good with fair firewood, which is better than most of what is up here.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: No trail from Lake Surrender on. Three miles cross-country southeast, past Needle and Comet.

• Camping: Good camping with fair firewood, per FWP.

• Fishing: Stocked goldens with a spawning outlet. One fish at 13.9 inches in 2018, eighteen averaging 8.4 in 1994.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.