Favonius Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 25 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with roughly 3,300 feet of climbing. All on trail.
Elevation: 9,505 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat, common and self-sustaining. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.21864, -110.09625
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Trail #27 up the East Fork of the Boulder past Lake Kathleen and Lake Columbine, then over Columbine Pass and down. FWP's directions send you up Rainbow Creek, taking the right fork and crossing the creek to reach the pass.

You can walk to Favonius on trail the whole way. We went off trail to pick up Mouse first and came into Favonius from there, about a mile south of here and fifty minutes, but that detour is optional. If Favonius is what you want, stay on the trail.

The hike

Favonius is the biggest lake in this cluster at 25.5 acres, and one of the shallowest, 15 feet at the deepest and 5 on average.

The fish are spawning on their own. FWP saw redds in the inlet in 2016 but could not catch enough for a sample. They came back in 2019 and their note is blunt about it: the fishing was good but the gill net did not catch many. That sample was 35 cutthroat averaging 10.2 inches, and the range tells the real story, from under 5 inches up to 18.1. In 2008 they got 9 fish averaging 12 inches.

A lake where the rod outperforms the net and there are fish of every size in it is a lake with a healthy population.

There are lots of campsites and firewood is available, which makes this the easiest place to stay on this side of the pass.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: On trail the whole way from Box Canyon over Columbine Pass. No route-finding needed to reach this one.

• Camping: Lots of sites with firewood available.

• Fishing: Self-sustaining cutthroat with fish from a few inches to 18. FWP's own note is that fishing was good and their nets underperformed.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.