Diamond Lake (Boulder)

Drainage: Boulder
Approaches: Approximately 16 miles round trip on Upsidedown Creek Trail #26, with roughly 3,400 feet of climbing. All on trail.
Elevation: 9,609 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.26690, -110.17033
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Diamond sits right on the Upsidedown Creek Trail, about half a mile east of Horseshoe and 22 feet above it. Upsidedown Creek runs out of the country above and down past it.

We came through on the last morning of a nine-day traverse, walking out. Lake Raymond is six tenths of a mile southeast, and we passed that first, then Diamond, then Horseshoe within the same hour.

The hike

Montana FWP has no entry for this lake, which means no depth, no acreage, no fish record and no camping assessment. Nothing has been published about it.

What it has going for it is position. It is on the trail rather than off it, at 9,609 feet, and it sits between two lakes that both have something to offer — Horseshoe half a mile west with good camping, and Raymond just southeast.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: On the Upsidedown Creek Trail, half a mile east of Horseshoe. No route-finding.

• Camping: We walked through and did not scout it. Horseshoe has camping FWP calls good, half a mile west.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.