West Boulder Lake

Drainage: Boulder
Approaches: Approximately 18 miles round trip from the Fourmile trailhead, with roughly 4,500 feet of climbing. No trail above Silver Lake.
Elevation: 9,794 feet
Fish: Yellowstone cutthroat, common and stocked. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.37663, -110.36064
Bugs: Never bad.

Getting there

Everything up to Prospect applies here first, and Silver is where we camped. This works as a day hike from Silver and it is an easy one.

From Prospect the route climbs north to a pass at 10,142 feet, about an hour above the lake and two hours out from camp. You can go up the brown slide rock, but the direct route is better.

Dropping into West Boulder, stay to the north side. That avoids most of the cliffs. It is about 550 feet down off the pass and took us twenty-five minutes, putting us at the lake three hours from camp.

FWP describes the same line, cross-country northwest from Silver to Prospect, then through the saddle and down.

We met a man there who had come up with his son, who could not have been more than eight.

The hike

West Boulder is 13 acres, 55 feet at the deepest and 26 on average, which makes it the deepest lake in this basin.

The fishing is the reason to come. Every cast. It was the best of the six lakes we hit on the trip, and none of them were bad.

FWP agrees in writing. Their 2017 survey was done entirely with a rod, and they pulled 17 cutthroat averaging 15 inches with the biggest at 15.9. In 2009 they got 21 averaging 15.7 with one at 17.6. Their comment on the lake is that it is great fishing for fat, healthy fish. It is stocked on an eight-year cycle, 1,300 fish in 2011 and again in 2019, with the next 1,300 due in 2027. There were golden trout planted here once, 5,000 of them in 1958, and nothing has come of it.

There is no camping at the lake and no firewood. There is scattered timber back from it, and there is probably a spot in there somewhere, but we did not scout it.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: No trail above Silver. Northwest to Prospect, then north to the pass at 10,142 feet. Stay on the north side dropping in to avoid most of the cliffs.

• Camping: Nothing at the lake, no firewood. Scattered timber back from the water that we did not scout. Silver has the camping and this is an easy day hike from there.

• Fishing: The best on the trip, a fish every cast. Stocked cutthroat averaging 15 inches in FWP's nets with fish to 17.6.

• Bugs: Never bad.

• The pass: You can go up the brown slide rock but the direct route is better.