Kaufman Lake

Drainage: Boulder
Approaches: Approximately 20 miles round trip from the Fourmile trailhead, with roughly 4,800 feet of climbing. No trail above Silver Lake.
Elevation: 8,994 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat, common and self-sustaining. Arctic grayling, stocked. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.38625, -110.36447
Bugs: Never bad.

Getting there

We did not reach this one. We stood above it and looked down at it, about a third of a mile out and 580 feet up, and turned around without touching the water. Everything below is what we could see and what the state has published, not what we walked.

Everything up to West Boulder applies here first. From West Boulder the route runs north and stays high. Four hours out from camp at Silver we were on the bench above the lake at 9,573 feet, with Kaufman below us to the north.

The reason we stopped is the ground between. From up there the best line looked like dropping into the canyon and then going straight down. Everything else is cliffs.

FWP gives two ways in. Up Fourmile Creek past Silver, Patient and West Boulder, which is the way we came, at 10 miles with 4,785 up and 1,965 down. Or up Speculator Creek, leaving the trail at the switchbacks, at 9 miles with 4,640 up and 1,400 down.

The hike

Kaufman is the biggest lake in this basin by a long way, 39.7 acres against West Boulder's 13, and 70 feet at the deepest.

It is also the only one with grayling. FWP put 15,750 arctic grayling in here in 2012 and another 8,225 in 2013, stocked as a possible high-elevation brood source, and their 2017 survey found 16 of them averaging 12.5 inches. The cutthroat are self-sustaining and spawning in the inlet stream, and that same 2017 crew saw fish from two inches to twelve. In 2009 they sampled 19 cutthroat averaging 14.7 with the biggest at 16. Golden trout went in once, 10,000 in 1958, same as at West Boulder, and nothing came of it.

FWP says the camping is best in the meadow near the inlet and firewood is available, which would make it the only lake above Silver with either.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: No trail above Silver. We came north from West Boulder and stopped on the bench above the lake. From there the line down looked like the canyon and then straight down; the rest is cliffs.

• Camping: FWP puts the best camping in the meadow near the inlet with firewood available. We were not down there.

• Fishing: Self-sustaining cutthroat to 16 inches and stocked arctic grayling averaging 12.5, which is the only grayling in this basin. We did not fish it.

• Bugs: Never bad.