Lake Pinchot

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 36 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with roughly 2,950 feet of climbing. All on trail.
Elevation: 9,332 feet
Fish: Rainbow and golden trout hybrids, common and self-sustaining. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.27921, -110.07191
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

The plateau is the way in. FWP is unusually blunt about the alternative: avoid the Flood Creek drainage like the plague, basically impassable. Take that at face value.

Box Canyon is 18 miles, Upsidedown Creek 16.

We came from Wounded Man, a bit under a mile northeast, about an hour on. Your route across the plateau passes here more than once if you are moving around up top; we came through three times over four days.

The hike

Pinchot is 53.9 acres, the biggest water on the plateau, though shallow for its size at 30 feet in the deepest spot and 12 on average.

The fish are the same puzzle as at Wounded Man. FWP says the origin of the rainbows is not known, but spawning success is evident, and what is in there now reads as rainbow crossed with golden. They sampled it in 2025 with a rod and a net and got 5 fish averaging 12.3 inches with one at 17.3. Their note is that the rainbows up to 17 inches fought hard. In 2018 they got 11 averaging 13.3.

Excellent camping and lots of firewood, though the lake gets a lot of use and there are signs of horse traffic.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: On trail from the plateau. Do not try Flood Creek — FWP calls it basically impassable.

• Camping: Excellent camping with lots of firewood. Heavy use, and horses come in here.

• Fishing: Self-sustaining rainbow-golden hybrids to 17 inches. FWP's crew singled out how hard they fought.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.