Shadow Lake (Rock Creek)

Drainage: Rock Creek
Approaches: West Fork Rock Creek Trailhead — 9 mi on trail per FWP, or about 7 mi cutting off-trail at the footbridge; 1,800 ft up · From Sundance Lake — about 0.65 mi southwest

Elevation: 9,604 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.10152, -109.58507
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

West Fork Rock Creek Trailhead. Drive past the campgrounds along the gravel access road to the main parking area.

Follow the main trail up the valley to the footbridge below Sundance Pass. FWP routes you the rest of the way on trail at nine miles total. We left the path at the bridge and went cross country the last stretch into the basin, which came out at about seven miles walked with 1,777 feet of climbing. The off-trail portion is easy going.

The hike

This basin is one of our favorite places in the range, and Shadow is the reason. It sits at 9,604 feet with easy access to everything above it, which makes it the natural basecamp for the whole upper drainage.

We used it as the base for four days. From here Kookoo is 1.2 miles north, Triangle 1.3 north-northwest, Ship 1.2 north-northwest, Marker 1.25 northwest, Bowback 1.6 north-northwest, and the Silt Lakes eight tenths of a mile southwest. Every one of those is a day trip from a camp here rather than a separate expedition.

With a normal day pack the walk in is not bad. Sundance Lake is about two thirds of a mile northeast if you want to break it up.

Shadow is 3.6 acres. FWP lists Yellowstone cutthroat.

Tips & safety

• Whitetail Couloir: from the lake to the top is roughly a mile with about 2,400 feet of climbing, and it is a brutal, sustained push. The descent runs steep enough that it reads around a 60 percent grade coming down. If you are packing skis, boots, crampons and ice axes, expect the load to run near 60 pounds. Late summer can leave the top hundred feet bare, which stops you skiing from the very top. We skied it.

• Hang your food, and your gear: we had a pine marten or something like it get into camp overnight and work through a sandwich and the cork grip off a walking stick. Marten will chew anything that has had hands on it, not just food. A walking stick leaned against a tree counts as fair game.

• Camping: this is the best basecamp in the drainage and we would use it again. It sits below the open benches so there is real shelter here that you lose the moment you climb, and it is close enough to every lake in the upper basin to reach them all without moving camp.

• Fishing: FWP lists Yellowstone cutthroat.