Sodalite Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Clarks Fork — 10 mi, 9 on trail with 1 mi off-trail; 2,000 ft up, 200 ft down · From Surprise Lake — about 1.25 mi cross-country east-southeast

Elevation: 9,794 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.08334, -109.81848
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

From the Clarks Fork side it is a long day. Ten miles, nine of them on trail, with 2,000 feet of climbing and a final mile off trail.

We came the long way. Sodalite came on the third day of a thru hike that started at the Lady of the Lake Trailhead. A thru hike takes two vehicles. We left one at the Clarks Fork end of the Beaten Path, drove around to Lady of the Lake in the other, and started walking. Set the shuttle rig before you leave, not after.

The hike

From Surprise Lake the route runs about a mile and a quarter east-southeast across the upper bench. It reads flat on a map and does not walk that way. We gained a little over 300 feet across that stretch and it took an hour with full packs, because the bench is granite shelves and gaps rather than a surface you can hold a line on. No tread anywhere.

Sodalite opens up at 25.8 acres, a good sized piece of water for this high on the shelf. FWP lists brook trout, which makes it the only lake on this stretch of the upper shelf carrying them. Everything around it is Yellowstone cutthroat or no record at all.

Below Sodalite the shelf ends. The drop to Boulder Lakes is 650 feet of loose granite and talus and takes more than two miles of walking to cover one mile of ground.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: no maintained trail through this upper basin. Continuous route finding across open granite with a full pack, and the ground gives back less distance per hour than anywhere else on the trip.

• Fishing: FWP lists brook trout, the only brook trout water on this part of the shelf.

• Camping: Sodalite sits at 9,794 feet on open granite, right around treeline, so wind shelter is scarce and what timber there is comes in scattered pockets rather than a stand. The shoreline is rock. At 25.8 acres it is large enough to build its own weather. We came through in the afternoon on a moving day 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.