Jewel Lake

Drainage: Yellowstone/Hell Roaring
Approaches: Approximately 8.7 miles round trip from Pine Creek Campground on Trail #47, with roughly 3,350 feet of climbing.
Elevation: 8,982 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.48749, -110.46684
Bugs: Nothing that stood out.

Getting there

Pine Creek Trail #47 out of Pine Creek Campground, maintained the whole way. Pine Creek Falls at thirty-five minutes, then a long climb.

Jewell comes first at five hours ten. Jewel is forty minutes further on, and the forty minutes are earned: 362 feet of gain in 227 metres, about a 49 percent grade, with Jewel Lake Falls coming down beside you.

We were at Jewel five hours and fifty minutes out from the car.

The hike

Jewel sits at 8,982 feet, between Jewell below and Pine Creek Lake a quarter mile southeast and 50 feet higher.

The name is worth a word. The Falcon Guide carries one Jewel Lake. The maps show two lakes here, Jewell below and Jewel above, and they are separate water with a falls between them. If you are working off the book expecting one lake, you will walk past the other.

Montana FWP has no entry, so there is no depth, no acreage and no fish record.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: Trail #47, maintained. Second of the three lakes. The pitch between Jewell and Jewel is the steepest ground on the trail.

• Camping: We were passing through to Pine Creek Lake and did not scout it. Pine Creek Lake has the established camping a quarter mile on.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Nothing that stood out.