In a state known for its spectacular mountain scenery and views, the Lake Plateau in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains seems to hold a special honor among some adventurous souls.
“The Lake Plateau is drop-dead gorgeous,” said Allie Wood, Beartooth Ranger District wilderness and trails manager.
Her description helps explain why the high, lake-dotted country between the Stillwater and Boulder river drainages in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is so popular. Another reason is because people like Mark Donald, a pastor and the executive director of the Christikon outdoor ministry at the base of the plateau along the Boulder River, has introduced many, many people to the plateau.
Donald estimates that in his 33 years working at and visiting the camp, beginning when he was a staff person while attending college, he’s guided 15 to 30 people a year to the region. Fifteen is the maximum the camp can take into the backcountry based on Forest Service permit regulations. But he was just one of the Christikon guides, so the camp — along with others along the Boulder River — have likely introduced thousands of people from across the country to the Lake Plateau.
“There’s a lot of people because of the church groups,” said Earl Radonski, who for five years led Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ high mountain lakes summer fisheries survey crew into the Beartooth and Crazy mountains.
High routes
The Lake Plateau can be accessed via several routes. There’s the long hike up the West Fork of the Stillwater with a steep climb at the end of the canyon. Backpackers and horseback riders can also trek to the region via the main Stillwater River, turning west up the Wounded Man Creek Trail. On the Boulder side is the switchback-laden Upside Down Creek Trail, where Donald counted 30 turns as the trail climbs about 3,000 feet from Christikon’s back door. Then there’s the Box Canyon Trail up the East Fork Boulder River.
No matter the route, hikers and riders are in for a climb. The West Fork Stillwater Trail tops out at 9,600 feet near Lake Diaphanous after starting out at 6,400 feet 12 miles to the north. Upside Down Creek Trail starts at 6,300 feet and hits Horseshoe Lake 7.5 miles and 3,200 feet in elevation gain later.
“It’s challenging to get up there,” said Alex Sienkiewicz, Yellowstone District ranger, based in Livingston. “And there are some lakes that don’t have (maintained) trails.”
Columbine Pass
Columbine Pass is at an elevation of about 9,800 feet. The pass connects the Boulder and Stillwater river drainages in the Beartooth Mountains south of Big Timber.
From the old Box Canyon Ranger Station on the Boulder River, it’s an 11-mile route to get to 9,850-foot Columbine Pass. The Stillwater River approach, going up Wounded Man Creek, is the longest at about 17 miles.
Many lakes
On approach or atop the plateau there are more than 30 lakes, many of them stocked with trout. The waters vary in size from 7-acre Pippit Lake to 54-acre Lake Pinchot.
“There’s good fishing at all of those lakes up there, but it gets a lot of use,” Radonski said.
Because the lakes tend to get a lot of fishing pressure, Radonski said FWP stocks the more popular lakes every four years, instead of the eight-year rotation used on other mountain waters.
Anglers will find rainbow, Yellowstone cutthroat and golden trout in different lakes, along with hybrids of the different species in the upper end of Flood Creek.
“That’s nothing that happened by design,” Radonski said, but the offspring are beautiful fish, each one a bit different than the other.
Plateaulike
The definition of a plateau — an area of relatively level high ground — is not a good description for this area if taken literally. Trails that travel to the lakes climb up and down mountain passes at 9,000 feet. The region is more pockmarked than plateaulike, as if it were once bombarded by massive meteors that gouged out deep depressions in the rock-ridden land.
Actually, the plateau was created about 50 million years ago when 3 billion-year-old rock was lifted to the surface. When massive glaciers that buried the mountains retreated they scraped out the now lake-filled basins while also exposing the rock-clad mountains.
“It has big views,” said Madeleine Kornfield, who worked on a trail crew for the Beartooth Ranger District for two years and then was a wilderness ranger for seven more. “It has more green, more lakes and it’s a little bit lower than the other rocky plateaus.”
Radonski likes that from a base camp, backpackers with a few days to spend could fish a different lake or two every day.
“There’s a lot of lakes really close together,” he said. “If you set up a base camp at Wounded Man (Lake), you could go to 15 different lakes, no problem, even though it’s a long hike in there.”
Most of the lakes also have at least one, if not more, level camping sites, and there are several peaks ambitious hikers can daytrip to from base camp.
“It checks it all off,” said Donald, the 50-year-old Christikon pastor.
Pristine lakes, great views, colorful wildflowers and good fishing — the country is so appealing that Donald said one group from Brookings, South Dakota, has returned every year for 22 years.
“It still feels the same as when I was a college kid,” he said. “It’s fabulous country, almost surreal.”
