Sundown Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 32 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with roughly 3,500 feet of climbing. The last mile is off trail.
Elevation: 9,584 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat, common and stocked. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.23305, -110.10255
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Trail #27 up the East Fork of the Boulder past Lake Kathleen and Lake Columbine, over Columbine Pass, then down past Favonius and Pentad. The trail runs out before the lake.

Sundown sits about six tenths of a mile north of Pentad. We came from a camp at Columbine and were here around two in the afternoon, just under five hours of walking. It was a somewhat difficult day, about five miles with some off trail and a fair bit of elevation.

FWP lists a second way in from Woodbine, up the Stillwater and past Wounded Man, at 21 miles.

There is no trail to the lake, but horses have made it here.

The hike

Sundown is small, 5.2 acres at 9,584 feet. FWP calls it a beautiful lake with an excellent campsite and firewood, and we camped here.

We swam it, and the water was good enough that we went in twice, an hour apart.

The fish are small but the lake has history. FWP netted and fished it in 2016 and got 16 cutthroat averaging 13.2 inches, and their note says they caught some nice fish but not the big ones this lake has produced in the past. The 2009 survey is a single fish at 19.6 inches. It is stocked every eight years, 520 fish in 2011 and 2019, with the next lot due in 2027.

We fished it and the fish were small.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: On trail to past Pentad, then off trail the last mile north. No trail to the lake, though horses get in.

• Camping: Excellent campsite with firewood, and it was ours for the night.

• Fishing: Stocked cutthroat. What we caught was small; FWP has taken fish to nearly 20 inches out of here in the past.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.

• Swimming: Good enough to go in twice.