Cliff Lake
Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Lady of the Lake Trailhead — 6 mi, on trail apart from the creek crossing; about 1,150 ft up · From Lady of the Lake — about 4.3 mi
Elevation: 9,381 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.08604, -109.86330
Bugs: Minimal on our visit
Getting there
Cliff is one of the few lakes up this drainage you can reach on trail nearly the whole way, and it is the last one. Everything past it is route finding.
Six miles from the Lady of the Lake Trailhead with about 1,150 feet of climbing. It took us three and a half hours with full packs on the first day of a thru hike, and there is nothing technical in it apart from the creek.
We came on a thru hike that started at the Lady of the Lake Trailhead and exited at the Clarks Fork end of the Beaten Path. Two vehicles, one dropped at the exit before we started. Without a shuttle you are walking the whole thing twice.
The hike
After passing Lady of the Lake, take the lower fork at the trail split. Continue for about three and a half miles from the trailhead to an open field where Zimmer Creek and Star Creek meet. The National Geographic topo map shows no trail heading up into the Sky Top drainage from here. There is one.
The route turns up Sky Top Creek and gets steep. The water roaring down through the canyon is loud enough to take your mind off the climb, which is more useful than it sounds.
There are a couple of trail junctions on this stretch and it is worth being deliberate at every one of them. Higher up, the trail cuts through a dense patch of willows and gets hard to follow. You need to find a spot to cross the creek, and it is running hard here. On the far side the trail picks up again and takes you to the shore.
Cliff is 6.6 acres at 9,381 feet. FWP lists brook trout.
Tips & safety
The junctions are the problem, not the climb. We met a man on this stretch who was trying to reach the Aero Lakes drainage and had gone badly off course. We had to tell him he was in the wrong drainage entirely and send him back. Know which creek you are following.
The creek crossing: the willows hide the tread and the water is loud and fast. Take the time to pick a good crossing rather than the first one you see.
Fishing: FWP lists brook trout.
Camping: Cliff sits at 9,381 feet in timber below the open benches, so there is real wind shelter here that you lose as soon as you climb past it. At 6.6 acres there is a fair amount of shoreline. We came through in the afternoon on a moving day without scouting sites, so take this as terrain description rather than a report on what is available.
What is past it: Cliff is the end of the trail for practical purposes. Splinter is about three quarters of a mile northeast and everything above that is cross country.
Thru hike logistics: this is point to point, not a loop. Your ride has to already be parked at the exit trailhead.
