Jewell Lake

Drainage: Yellowstone/Hell Roaring
Approaches: Approximately 8.5 miles round trip from Pine Creek Campground on Trail #47, with roughly 3,000 feet of climbing.
Elevation: 8,620 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.48875, -110.46913
Bugs: Nothing that stood out.

Getting there

Pine Creek Trail #47 out of Pine Creek Campground in Paradise Valley, maintained the whole way. Pine Creek Falls comes early, thirty-five minutes from the trailhead. After that it climbs and does not let up.

Jewell is the first of the three lakes on this trail. It took us five hours and ten minutes to reach it with overnight packs.

The hike

Jewell sits at 8,620 feet, the lowest of the three, with Pine Creek running out of it down the valley.

Above it the ground stands straight up. Jewel Lake is only 227 metres away but 362 feet higher, which works out to about a 49 percent grade, and Jewel Lake Falls comes down that pitch between them. Pine Creek Lake is another quarter mile beyond Jewel.

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

Tips & safety

• Navigation: Trail #47, maintained, no route-finding. First of the three lakes.

• Camping: We were passing through to Pine Creek Lake and did not scout it. Pine Creek Lake has the established camping, four tenths of a mile on and 412 feet higher.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Nothing that stood out.