Peanut Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Lady of the Lake Trailhead — about 6.5 mi, on trail to Cliff then cross-country · From Splinter Lake — about 0.3 mi southwest

Elevation: 9,474 feet
Fish: No FWP data
Coordinates: 45.08678, -109.85461
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Peanut sits on the way in. Coming up Sky Top Creek past Cliff Lake, it is the last water you pass before Splinter, about a quarter mile short of it.

We came on a thru hike that started at the Lady of the Lake Trailhead and exited at the Clarks Fork end of the Beaten Path. Two vehicles, one dropped at the exit before we started. Without a shuttle you are walking the whole thing twice.

The hike

The trail ends at Cliff. Everything past it is route finding, but the ground between Cliff, Peanut and Splinter is open and the walking is easy.

Peanut is small, 1.7 acres at 9,474 feet, sitting on the same bench as Splinter with almost no elevation change between them. From a camp at Splinter it is about three tenths of a mile southwest, fifteen minutes there and back.

FWP has no data for it, which means no stocking record rather than a confirmed empty lake.

Tips & safety

• You pass it anyway. If you are walking to Splinter, Peanut is on the route. There is no reason to make a separate trip for it.

• An easy evening circuit: Peanut southwest, Moccasin three tenths of a mile south, and Finger a quarter mile east of Moccasin. All three from a Splinter camp in an evening.

• Fishing: no FWP record for this lake.

• Camping: Peanut sits at 9,474 feet on the same bench as Splinter, in similar scattered timber, but at under two acres the shoreline is short. Splinter, a quarter mile northeast and three times the size, is the better camp.