Lonesome Lake
Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Clay Butte Trailhead, approximately 11 mi round trip; roughly 2,400 ft of climbing along the way. On trail, then a short walk off it · From Island Lake Trailhead, approximately 6.5 mi with 2.5 of it off-trail
Elevation: 10,050 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.00539, -109.60192
Bugs: Minimal on our visit
Getting there
The Clay Butte Trailhead sits off US 212 west of the Beartooth Lake turnoff, up the gravel Clay Butte Road toward the lookout tower. The signed trailhead is on the left just before a hairpin switchback, at approximately 9,555 feet.
The trail drops roughly 345 feet over the first mile and a half, climbs north past Native Lake at about three miles and through the small lakes beyond it, then keeps climbing. Lonesome comes at approximately five and a half miles.
There is a second way in from the Island Lake Trailhead, roughly six and a half miles with about two and a half of that off-trail.
The hike
Approximately five and a half miles from Clay Butte with roughly 2,400 feet of climbing along the way. The last mile past the card lakes is where the day turns into work, gaining around five hundred feet as the trail pushes up onto the higher shelf.
Lonesome is the first real water on this side of ten thousand feet and the largest lake we passed all day, around thirty-six acres. It straddles the Montana and Wyoming line, which is why it turns up in records for both states.
Tips & safety
Navigation: on trail, then a short walk off the line to the shore. Open country at this height with long sightlines, so route-finding is not the issue. Weather is.
Camping: we did not camp at Lonesome, so this is terrain description and not a site report. At just over ten thousand feet the lake is well above the trees with no wind shelter anywhere on the shoreline. At thirty-six acres there is room to find level ground, but nothing to hide behind.
Fishing: brook trout (FWP). This is the first lake on the route with an actual Montana record behind it rather than a fishing-guide note.
Bugs: minimal on our visit.
