Silver Lake (Boulder)

Drainage: Boulder
Approaches: Approximately 15 miles round trip from the Fourmile trailhead, with roughly 3,100 feet of climbing.
Elevation: 9,138 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat, common and self-sustaining. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.36095, -110.3499
Bugs: Never bad.

Getting there

You start at a Forest Service cabin on the Boulder River, about 17 miles of gravel past the forest boundary south of Big Timber. Parking sits below the cabin's gate and the trail runs right past the cabin, so you can walk by the landmark you are looking for. The sign at its entrance reads Fourmile Ranger Station.

There are two junctions and you stay right at both.

Two and a half hours from the trailhead we hit the first one, about three miles in at 7,335 feet, where Trail Creek splits off from the Fourmile trail.

Six hours from the trailhead we hit the second, at about 6.6 miles and 8,592 feet, signed Hi Ho Silver #243 and Silver Lake #149. The stretch between those two junctions is the long part of the day, three and a half hours for three and a half miles and 1,250 feet.

From that second junction it is another fifty minutes and about 440 feet to the lake. We were there just under seven hours out from the car with overnight packs. FWP calls the whole thing 7.5 miles with 3,100 feet of climbing and our track agrees.

We saw a lot of bear sign on the way up, claw marks in the trees and scat, and never came across the bear.

The hike

Silver is small, 10 acres and 30 feet at the deepest, and it works well as a basecamp for everything above it.

There is camping right at the outlet, which is the first thing you come to and the obvious choice. It catches all the wind coming off the lake. We kept going, up a small rocky cliff to a flat spot southwest of the lake, and got out of the wind that way. We took water from the lake. Firewood was plentiful. There is better camping on the far side, on the east shore toward the inlet at the north end.

FWP calls the camping excellent with firewood getting picked over by campers, and notes the lake receives heavy use. Both were true when we were there.

The fish here have a history. Silver was part of the Upper Boulder Yellowstone cutthroat restoration, and from 2007 to 2009 FWP ran gill nets to pull rainbows out. Cutthroat were stocked until 2012 and have been self-sustaining since. Their 2020 survey turned up 16 cutthroat averaging 10 inches with the biggest at 13.7, plus 5 rainbows still hanging on. Fishing was good.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: Fourmile Trail #22 from the cabin. Stay right at the Trail Creek junction around three miles, and right again at the Hi Ho Silver junction around 6.6 miles onto Silver Lake #149.

• Camping: The outlet sites are exposed to wind off the lake. Up the small rocky cliff southwest of the lake there is a flat spot out of the wind, and there is better camping again on the east shore toward the inlet. Plenty of firewood, though FWP notes it is getting picked over.

• Fishing: Self-sustaining Yellowstone cutthroat running around 10 inches, with fish to 13.7 in FWP's 2020 nets, and a few rainbows left over from before the restoration.

• Bugs: Never bad.

• Bear sign: Claw marks in the trees and scat on the way in. We never saw the bear.