Sill Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (WY)
Approaches: Beartooth Lake outlet — about 0.75 mi one way; 200 ft up front-loaded, then flat or downhill

Elevation: 8,941 feet
Fish: No WYG&F data
Coordinates: 44.93016, -109.59236
Bugs: Marshy, bring repellent

Getting there

Park at the Beartooth Lake outlet off the Beartooth Highway. The trail starts right at the parking area.

The hike

All of the climbing happens first. The trail goes straight up from the lot, skirting the trees with a rock face beside you. Once you clear that 200 foot pull, everything after it is flat or downhill.

Then it works like this. At the rock opening the trail bends toward the forest, meets a creek, and follows it up to a swampy meadow. It skirts the edge of the meadow the whole way across without going into the trees, and picks back up on the far side. Near the lake it stays high before dropping to the shore about halfway along.

Once you can see the water, leave the trail and head straight for the inlet.

The lake is marshy and the inlet is swampy. Dense brush and wet ground make the bank hard to work with, so if you want to fish you will likely be wading rather than casting from shore. Fish presence is unconfirmed.

Tips & safety

• Three places you will lose the trail. Right at the trailhead for the first 50 vertical feet, crossing the meadow, and above the lake near the rocks and downed timber. None of it is dangerous, but all three are easy to get turned around in.

• Finding it again on the way back: look for the trail to pick up above the lake, and stay high past the rocks and the downed timber.

• Bring repellent. Marsh and standing water, and the bugs match.

• Expect to wade. The brush and swamp around the shore make bank fishing difficult.

• Camping: there are very few good sites. The ground around the lake is marshy, forested and uneven, and flat dry ground is scarce. Firewood, on the other hand, is plentiful.

• Little Legs: we walked this one with our own young kids and they finished it on their own feet. That is a record of one day with our kids, not a rating. Read what Little Legs means.