Elk Lake (Clarks Fork, WY)

Drainage: Clarks Fork (WY)
Approaches: Clay Butte Trailhead, approximately 4.5 mi on the way out from Granite Lake
Elevation: 8,887 feet
Fish: No WYG&F data
Coordinates: 44.98779, -109.65401
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Elk sits between Granite Lake and the Clay Butte Trailhead, on the walk out. There is a trail to it, and the maps do not show one.

We came at it on day four, walking out from two nights basecamped at Granite. Poke comes first, then Elk about a mile and a half further on, with roughly four and a half miles left to the trailhead after that.

The hike

The walk out from Granite climbs steadily. You dropped nine hundred feet getting into that basin on the way in and you pay it back on the way out.

Elk sits at 8,887 feet, well below the high country you crossed on the way in. After two days above nine thousand and a first day that touched ten, this is the elevation coming off.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: there is a trail here even though the maps do not show one. Worth knowing that the published coordinates for Elk Lake are badly wrong. Some sources place it more than two and a half miles from where it actually sits, high on the plateau rather than down here on the way out. If you are navigating to a pin, check it against the ground.

• Fishing: no WYG&F data. Wyoming has no stocking record and no published survey for Elk Lake.

• Bugs: minimal on our visit.