Deep Lake (Clarks Fork WY)

Drainage: Clarks Fork (WY)
Approaches: Trailhead access near the Littlerock section — about 1 mi one way on maintained trail

Elevation: 7,958 feet
Fish: WYG&F data pending
Coordinates: 44.89421, -109.39648
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Access the area near the Littlerock section of the drainage and park at the designated trailhead access point. Finding the right starting point matters more here than on most lakes, because the wrong route in is genuinely dangerous.

The hike

Follow the maintained trail. Do not follow the inlet stream.

That is the most important sentence on this page. The inlet looks like a reasonable line and it is not. Going that way puts you into tight cliffs, heavy brush and raging water, and it turns a short hike into something miserable and hazardous. There is a proper trail and it is a far better way in. Use it.

The lake sits at 7,958 feet and the walk is short, roughly an hour and a half round trip.

The climb back out of the basin passes through the aftermath of an old microburst. Hundreds of downed trees and standing widowmakers block the route, and working over and around that timber is what makes the return harder than the distance suggests.

Wyoming Game and Fish data has not been pulled for Deep Lake. We fished it and caught nothing.

Tips & safety

• Stick to the trail. The inlet stream route is cliffs, brush and fast water. This is not a matter of preference.

• Widowmakers on the way out. The microburst left standing dead timber as well as downfall. Look up as well as down, and do not linger under anything leaning.

• The climb out is the work. Short hike, but a lot of deadfall to negotiate on the return.

• Fishing: no Wyoming Game and Fish record pulled yet. We caught nothing.

• Camping: Deep sits at 7,958 feet, low enough in this drainage to have real timber and wind shelter around it. The microburst damage means checking overhead carefully before pitching anything, since standing dead trees are the hazard in a blowdown area rather than the ones already on the ground.