Senal Lake

Drainage: Rock Creek
Approaches: West Fork Rock Creek Trailhead, approximately 10 mi round trip; roughly 2,275 ft of climbing. About 4 mi on trail, then approximately 1 mi off-trail up the outlet stream · From Dude Lake, approximately 0.2 mi southwest
Elevation: 10,153 feet
Fish: Brook trout, Yellowstone cutthroat (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.13747, -109.58087
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Same trailhead as Dude. Follow the West Fork trail about four miles, then take the path up the south side of the outlet stream. Senal comes first, roughly two tenths of a mile before Dude.

The hike

Four miles of good trail, then the climb. The path up the outlet stream is decent but it is not maintained.

Senal is small, around three and a half acres, and shallow at roughly ten feet at the deepest. It sits at 10,153 feet, above timberline and about forty-five feet below Dude.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: the path runs up the south side of the outlet stream. Senal and Dude sit close enough together that if you have come this far you should take both.

• Camping: above timberline with only a few small flat spots big enough for a tent. Better to camp below.

• Fishing: brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat (FWP), both self-sustaining. The brook trout have been here longer than the written records go back. The cutthroat drop in from Dude above. The 2021 survey found eighteen brookies averaging about eleven inches and twelve cutthroat averaging around twelve, with the largest cutthroat close to eighteen. Two species in three and a half acres is unusual up here.

• Bugs: minimal on our visit.

• Berries: Keep an eye out for wild strawberries they where pretty plentiful on this journey