Needle Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 45 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead. Off trail beyond Lake Surrender.
Elevation: 9,191 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.28040, -110.02184
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Trails to Lake Surrender, then cross-country southeast. Needle sits about a third of a mile southeast of Dryad and two minutes past it.

If you are working this basin, Needle is the crossroads. We came through it four separate times in one day, going out to the lakes above and coming back down.

The hike

Needle is small, about two acres at 9,191 feet.

Montana FWP has no entry for it, which means no depth, no acreage of their own, no fish record and no camping assessment. Nothing has been published about this lake.

What it is good for is orientation. Everything in this cluster runs off it — Comet and Asteroid south, Hermit further on, Pisce west. If you lose the thread on the way back down, get to Needle and you know where you are.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: A third of a mile southeast of Dryad, off trail. The natural hub for the lakes above it.

• Camping: We came through repeatedly and never scouted it. Lake Surrender has the good camping, a mile and a half northwest.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.