Sky Top Lakes
Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Goose Lake Jeep Trail — 6.5 mi on trail to Rough Lake, then about 0.9 mi off-trail east-northeast and 200 ft up · Lady of the Lake — 8 mi to Rough Lake, then the same final 0.9 mi
Elevation: 10,391 feet
Fish: No fish caught in FWP surveys
Coordinates: 45.12365, -109.80843
Bugs: Minimal on our visit
Getting there
There is no route that reaches Sky Top on trail. The trail ends at Rough Lake, and from there it is about nine tenths of a mile east-northeast across open rock with 200 feet of climbing to the lowest lake in the chain.
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
Day two was the only day we did not move camp. We left the tents at Splinter and walked a loop up through the high basins, and Sky Top was the turning point of it.
From Rough Lake it took about an hour and a half. Seven lakes are strung along this glacial shelf, stepping up as you go, and reaching the basin means angling up steep hillsides and working across open rock benches. There is no tread on any of it.
We made it to the lowest lake in the chain. Granite Peak stands two and a half miles due north, straight up the drainage, and from the shore it fills the head of the valley. That view is the reason to come up here.
Past Sky Top the route turns and everything after it is the return leg. We dropped southwest toward Rough and Lone Elk and back down to camp.
Tips & safety
Terrain: seven distinct lakes on this shelf, and getting to any of them means steep hillsides and open rock benches beyond Rough Lake. Nothing on the ground to follow.
Fishing: FWP records show Arctic grayling eggs planted in this basin in 1955, but surveys indicate they drifted downstream into Rough Lake. No fish have been caught in the upper waters since.
Camping: Sky Top sits at 10,391 feet on exposed rock, well above treeline. No timber, no wind shelter, and no firewood at this altitude. The ground is rock rather than duff and the shoreline offers nothing in the way of a sheltered pocket. Anyone staying up here is committing to a fully exposed camp. The nearest sheltered ground is well down the drainage. We came through in the afternoon on a day loop without scouting sites, so take this as terrain description rather than a report on what is available.
Thru hike logistics: this is point to point, not a loop. Your ride has to already be parked at the exit trailhead.
