Little Molar Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: No documented trailhead route. Nearest is Aquarius Lake — Clarks Fork Trail #3, 6 mi — then about 1.3 mi cross-country north-northwest · From Boulder Lakes — about 0.6 mi cross-country southeast

Elevation: 9,289 feet
Fish: No FWP data
Coordinates: 45.06416, -109.81564
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

There is no maintained route to Little Molar. The closest documented access is the Clarks Fork Trail #3 approach to Aquarius Lake, 6 miles with 2.75 of them off trail, and then about a mile and a third of cross-country north-northwest.

We came the long way. Little Molar was a stop on the third day of a thru hike that started at the Lady of the Lake Trailhead. A thru hike takes two vehicles. We left one at the Clarks Fork end of the Beaten Path, drove around to Lady of the Lake in the other, and started walking. Set the shuttle rig before you leave, not after.

The hike

From Boulder Lakes the route drops into the basin below, then reverses and climbs southeast to Little Molar. It is about six tenths of a mile with roughly 140 feet of climbing after the drop, and it took us just over half an hour with full packs late on the third day. You thread timber and rocky gaps to top out at 9,289 feet. There is no tread anywhere on it.

Little Molar is 3.2 acres. FWP has no data for it, which means no stocking record rather than a confirmed empty lake.

From here the ground carries south southeast toward Aquarius, another mile and a third and the last leg of a long day.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: no maintained trail reaches this basin. You are picking your own line, and the drop and re-climb between Boulder Lakes and here is the kind of terrain that looks shorter on a map than it walks.

• Fishing: FWP has no data for this lake. That is an absence of record, not a statement that it holds nothing.

• Camping: Little Molar sits at 9,289 feet with timber and rock around it, below treeline but not in a solid stand, so there is partial wind shelter rather than good cover. At 3.2 acres the shoreline is short. We came through in the evening on a moving day without scouting sites, so take this as terrain description rather than a report on what is available.

• Thru hike logistics: this is point to point, not a loop. Your ride has to already be parked at the exit trailhead.