Spaghetti Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: From Granite Lake, approximately 2.5 mi round trip; roughly 1,050 ft up · Clay Butte Trailhead, approximately 8 mi with 1 mi off-trail; roughly 700 ft up and 900 down · Crazy Lakes Trailhead, approximately 5.5 mi with 2.5 mi off-trail; roughly 1,000 ft up
Elevation: 9,204 feet
Fish: Arctic grayling (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.00509, -109.68967
Bugs: Bugs: Mosquitoes present on our visit

Getting there

Spaghetti sits west of Granite Lake and above it. We had made Granite on day two and camped there two nights, which meant we could go at this one with day packs instead of full loads. That turned out to matter.

It is about a mile and a quarter from the lake, and you climb roughly a thousand feet doing it. There is no gentle way to put that. It is a short distance and a real haul, and going up with an overnight pack on would change the day completely.

If you are coming in cold rather than from a Granite basecamp, FWP lists Clay Butte at about eight miles with a mile of it off-trail, or Crazy Lakes at five and a half with two and a half off-trail. They also note that if you use Crazy Lakes you should navigate by coordinates once you are past Copeland Lake.

The hike

A thousand feet of climbing packed into a mile and a quarter, west and up out of the Granite basin. Day packs made it worth doing as an out-and-back from camp.

Around six and a half acres at 9,204 feet. It is shallow through most of it, running about nine feet on average, but it drops to fifty-four at the deepest, which is unusual for a lake this size.

Both the inlet and the outlet are marsh.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: the lake is west of Granite. Coming from Crazy Lakes, FWP recommends navigating by coordinates after Copeland Lake.

• Camping: FWP notes some decent places to camp with plenty of firewood, but the ground is wet finding a dry spot in the nears is your best bet.

• Fishing: Arctic grayling, common and stocked, and this is the only grayling water on this side of the plateau. They run big for a lake this small. The 2019 survey found nine fish averaging just over thirteen inches with the largest at sixteen, and a 2017 survey found nineteen averaging eleven and a half. FWP plants them because the lake cannot sustain itself, with 945 fish in 2022 and another 945 scheduled for 2028. The marshy inlet and outlet leave almost no spawning habitat.

• Bugs: mosquitoes were out. Both the inlet and the outlet are marsh, which is likely why.