{"id":1302,"date":"2015-08-02T08:10:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T14:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2019-03-16T10:50:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T16:50:28","slug":"fizzle-lake-beartooth-mountains-montana-7-15-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1302","title":{"rendered":"Fizzle Lake, Beartooth Mountains, Montana (7-15-13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This long day hike to Russell, Ouzel, Skull and Fizzle Lakes starts at the Clark’s Fork trailhead\u00a0about 3 to 4 miles E of Cooke City, in southern Montana along Beartooth Highway No. 212.\u00a0 The short gravel access road to the trailhead is on the N side of the highway, just\u00a0slightly SE of\u00a0the entrance to the Chief Joseph campground on the S side of the highway.\u00a0 Very close to the trailhead, the trail crosses the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River above a waterfall (there is a short side trail to a viewing platform).<\/em><\/p>\n

The Clark’s Fork\u00a0trailhead is at 8,000 feet elevation.\u00a0 Lupe took the trail on to Russell Lake (8,372 feet), Ouzel Lake (9,400+ feet), Skull Lake (9,660 feet), and Fizzle Lake (9,818 feet).\u00a0 She saw other lakes along the way too, although she never did make it to Fossil Lake, her main objective, due to SPHP’s map reading error.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a long day the previous day\u00a0going to Frozen Lake, Lake Promise, Heart Lake and several other alpine lakes in the Beartooths, SPHP thought that Lupe should just\u00a0try a relatively easy short trek on July 15, 2013.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe and SPHP could then spend a pleasant restful late afternoon and evening back at their favorite campsite on the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River.<\/p>\n

In August of 2012, Lupe and SPHP had gone to Kersey Lake with Lanis on Lupe’s first ever big summer Dingo Vacation.\u00a0 The trail to Kersey Lake\u00a0almost immediately crosses\u00a0the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River, but is otherwise a pretty ordinary stroll through the forest the rest of the way to Kersey Lake.\u00a0 Today though, SPHP thought Lupe might go further. \u00a0Rock Island, Fox, Widewater and Big Moose Lakes were all possible destinations.<\/p>\n

So on the morning of 7-15-13, Lupe and SPHP set out from the Clark’s Fork Trailhead.\u00a0 Lupe crossed the Clark Fork’s of the Yellowstone River and followed the trail to Kersey Lake.\u00a0 The S side of Kersey Lake is set in a dense forest.\u00a0 Although the trail passes fairly close to the lake, there weren’t\u00a0many good views of it from the trail.\u00a0 Soon Lupe and SPHP were beyond Kersey Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe explores in the forest near the trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well before reaching the turn-off for the trails to the other lakes SPHP had in mind as destinations, Lupe and SPHP met up with a young couple heading in the opposite direction.\u00a0 They were going\u00a0towards Kersey Lake.\u00a0 SPHP asked them where they were headed.\u00a0 They replied that they had just spent 4 days coming over from East Rosebud, which seems to be a very popular backpacking start or end point.\u00a0 They were headed for the Clark’s Fork trailhead, so their trip was nearly done.<\/p>\n

SPHP asked them what part of the trip they had liked the best.\u00a0 They said the top of the world around Windy Lake and Fossil Lake.\u00a0 Around Windy Lake the sky had been beautiful with rainbows in addition to the great alpine views.<\/p>\n

SPHP is a total sucker for the high country.\u00a0 Lupe loves it too.\u00a0\u00a0After the young couple went on, SPHP\u00a0took a quick check of the map.\u00a0 (SPHP didn’t even have a topo map of this area – just\u00a0a map of the general area for tourists Lanis picked up\u00a0in\u00a0August, 2012\u00a0at the visitor center in Cooke City.)<\/p>\n

The map showed Fossil Lake and a trail going to it. Furthermore, Fossil Lake was on the edge of being close enough to where Lupe and\u00a0SPHP might just be able to make it there and back as a\u00a0very long day hike.\u00a0 All thoughts of a short day and restful evening in camp evaporated.\u00a0 Fossil Lake was Lupe’s new destination!<\/p>\n

SPHP had seen from a high point S of Kersey Lake a large canyon off to\u00a0the NE heading N into the high country.\u00a0 This had to be the route to Fossil Lake.\u00a0 SPHP knew it would be uphill all the way, but thought it was worth a try.\u00a0 When Lupe came to the junction of the trails to Big Moose Lake and Russell Creek, Lupe and SPHP\u00a0chose Russell Creek.<\/p>\n

Lupe was passing through a nice forest.\u00a0 There were mosquitoes, but they weren’t bad.\u00a0 It was a pretty easy stroll for a while,\u00a0since the trail wasn’t\u00a0climbing very fast.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0passed\u00a0another\u00a0trail to Fox Lake, but stayed on the Russell Creek trail.\u00a0 It was definitely heading for the big canyon.\u00a0 A little while after\u00a0passing the Fox Lake trail, Lupe\u00a0reached Russell Creek.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The waterfall on Russell Creek just below Russell Lake in the Beartooths.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From then on\u00a0the trail\u00a0started climbing more and more steeply as\u00a0Lupe followed Russell Creek up the big canyon.\u00a0 In places there were switchbacks.\u00a0 Eventually Lupe reached a bridge downstream from a nice waterfall.\u00a0 There were some big smooth rocks there. \u00a0Lupe and\u00a0SPHP took a break.\u00a0 There didn’t seem to be any mosquitoes at all here.\u00a0 Just above the waterfall was a lake (unnamed, but shown on the visitor guide map).\u00a0 SPHP learned weeks later, this was Russell Lake.\u00a0 It was very beautiful.\u00a0 Russell Lake is\u00a0set deep in the canyon with high thinly forested rock walls around most of it.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the E side of\u00a0Russell Lake there was supposed to be another trail leading E to Mariane Lake.\u00a0 SPHP was watching for it, but never saw it.\u00a0 Lupe wasn’t going there anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe at Russell Lake 7-15-13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

N of\u00a0Russell Lake\u00a0the trail climbed very steeply with many switchbacks.\u00a0 Lupe came to some beautiful meadows, marshes and ponds set deep in the canyon.\u00a0 Russell Creek, or some fork of it, ran through it all too.\u00a0 After climbing lots of switchbacks,\u00a0Lupe reached Ouzel Lake – another pretty, but smaller lake shown on the map.\u00a0 From here the trail turned W.\u00a0 Lupe and\u00a0SPHP started encountering more alpine terrain, and unfortunately lots more mosquitoes.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0soon came to a place with a very nice view of the creek\u00a0flowing down gently from the W\u00a0in a narrow part of\u00a0the canyon.<\/p>\n

\"Wildflowers<\/a>
Wildflowers along the creek near “Mosquito Ford”. (W above Ouzel Lake and just downstream of the unnamed lake.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was no bridge across the creek here, so\u00a0Lupe and SPHP\u00a0had to ford it.\u00a0 SPHP\u00a0made the mistake of taking socks and boots off to ford the creek barefooted.\u00a0 That greatly slowed\u00a0SPHP’s progress across the slippery stones on the creek bottom.\u00a0\u00a0 The mosquitoes were delighted.\u00a0 SPHP was eaten alive while making the creek crossing.\u00a0 Lupe was also being plagued by the “bad bugs” waiting for SPHP to hurry up and get across.<\/p>\n

The trail went W following the S shore of the creek.\u00a0 Soon Lupe was at another lake.\u00a0 This lake was larger than Ouzel Lake,\u00a0but not shown on the visitor guide map, which had at least shown Ouzel Lake as a little blue do.\u00a0 As it turns out, this lake is unnamed even on the Peakbagger.com topo map.\u00a0 The trail\u00a0continued W above the S shore of the unnamed lake.<\/p>\n

Once past the unnamed lake, the trail turned N.\u00a0 Before long\u00a0Skull Lake came into view (also not shown on the\u00a0visitor guide\u00a0map).\u00a0 Skull\u00a0Lake was larger than Ouzel Lake, but smaller than the unnamed lake.\u00a0 Lupe followed the trail\u00a0N\u00a0along the W shore\u00a0of Skull Lake.<\/p>\n

N of Skull Lake, Lupe was getting very high.\u00a0 SPHP knew\u00a0she had to be getting very close to Fossil Lake.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP\u00a0were following the trail on the W side of the creek, and came to another place where the creek had to be forded.\u00a0\u00a0SPHP now\u00a0made the mistake of not just fording it and staying on the trail.\u00a0 (The\u00a0visitor guide\u00a0map did show the trail crossing the creek not long before reaching Fossil Lake, but by now SPHP had lost a great deal of faith in\u00a0the map\u00a0since it failed to show so many landmarks.)\u00a0 Instead, Lupe and SPHP\u00a0left the main trail\u00a0and continued upstream on a spur\u00a0trail heading NNW still\u00a0on the W side of the creek.<\/p>\n

Lupe\u00a0climbed a fairly long way, maybe 1\/2 mile from Skull Lake, without coming to any better\u00a0spot to cross the creek.\u00a0 However, Lupe did come to a\u00a0gorgeous lake, larger than any of the others,\u00a0with views of high snow-capped peaks off to the NNW.\u00a0 Fossil Lake was shown on the\u00a0visitor guide\u00a0map as a large and very interestingly irregular-shaped lake.\u00a0 Maybe this was Fossil Lake?\u00a0 It didn’t seem to be in quite the right spot, but only a portion of the lake could be seen.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The outlet stream at the SE end of Fizzle Lake. Initially SPHP thought this might be Fossil Lake.\u00a0 Fossil Lake is actually considerably larger.\u00a0 It is about 0.5 mile E of Fizzle Lake.\u00a0 Lupe never made it to Fossil Lake this day.\u00a0 7-15-13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe and SPHP climbed up near the top of a ridge along the SW part of the lake. Lupe actually got up on top of the ridge, but\u00a0SPHP was blocked by\u00a0a nearly vertical\u00a020 foot high snow bank.\u00a0 Lupe had no problem going right on up.\u00a0 She stood on top of the snow bank peering down\u00a0at SPHP.\u00a0 SPHP made it partway up the snow bank.\u00a0 The view was splendid.\u00a0 SPHP didn’t realize it then, but Lupe and SPHP were looking at Fizzle Lake – not Fossil Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking NW at Fizzle Lake and snowy mountains of the Beartooth range beyond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A corner of Fizzle Lake in the Beartooths 7-15-13. Fizzle Lake has a very irregular shape. Lupe and SPHP only saw part of the lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was\u00a0starting to get\u00a0late in the day.\u00a0 SPHP was pretty tired from the long climb, although Lupe seemed quite happy.\u00a0 At least there weren’t any more of the “bad bugs” to plague her up on her snow bank.\u00a0 The terrain around Fizzle Lake was rugged enough to discourage SPHP from any further exploration around the lake.\u00a0 It was time to head back.\u00a0 This was supposed to have been an easy day, after all!<\/p>\n

On the way back down towards Skull Lake, SPHP could see the main trail on the hillside on the other (E)\u00a0side of the creek.\u00a0 Having pondered the\u00a0visitor guide\u00a0map some more, SPHP now realized that Lupe had not reached Fossil Lake.\u00a0 It had to be just over the ridge on the other side of the creek.\u00a0 Thirty more minutes and Lupe could be there.\u00a0 If it had been earlier in the day and the mosquitoes weren’t so bad, Lupe and SPHP would have forded the creek and gone to see Fossil Lake.\u00a0 As it was, Fossil Lake was going to be left to a future American Dingo adventure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A look back at the trail to Fizzle Lake in the Beartooth Mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mosquitoes were horrible almost everywhere on the way back, even where they hadn’t been on the way up.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP hurried along.\u00a0 At the outlet of the unnamed lake W of Ouzel Lake, there were lots of little 3″ to 5″\u00a0trout leaping out of the stream to eat mosquitoes flying above the waters.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP paused momentarily on the trail\u00a0to cheer the little trout on!\u00a0 A few minutes later, SPHP was plunging right on through the creek at the ford\u00a0a bit farther downstream.\u00a0 The boots got soaked, but Lupe and SPHP did not have to serve as the local blood bank.<\/p>\n

Along the E side\u00a0of Russell Lake, Lupe\u00a0encountered 7 or 8 backpackers coming up the trail.\u00a0 A young woman leading them was startled by Lupe.\u00a0 The backpackers were on their way to East Rosebud.\u00a0 They intended to camp at Russell Lake, which was a very good choice.\u00a0 It is a beautiful spot, and by some miracle there still weren’t any mosquitoes here.<\/p>\n

Below\u00a0Russell Lake,\u00a0Lupe and\u00a0SPHP stopped to rest on the big smooth stones near the bridge\u00a0across the creek where there is\u00a0a view of the waterfall.\u00a0 Lupe hadn’t eaten anything all day.\u00a0 She eagerly wolfed down\u00a0part of a trail mix bar, and all of the Taste of the Wild\u00a0SPHP had\u00a0brought for her.<\/p>\n

Lupe had a fun time sniffing an exploring along the trail the rest of the way back.\u00a0 SPHP was pretty miserable due to mosquitoes which were\u00a0very annoying\u00a0all the way.\u00a0 Deet was helping, but the mosquitoes still whined all around SPHP’s face looking for vulnerable spots.\u00a0 It was enough to start SPHP thinking it was about time for Lupe to leave the Beartooths\u00a0and head for the Canadian Rockies.<\/p>\n

When Lupe\u00a0got back to the G6, it was 47\u00b0F and\u00a09:38 PM.\u00a0 Just another short, easy 11-hour day on the trail in the beautiful Beartooth Mountains!<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Adventure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Prior Adventure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2013 Beartooths & Canadian Rockies Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This long day hike to Russell, Ouzel, Skull and Fizzle Lakes starts at the Clark’s Fork trailhead\u00a0about 3 to 4 miles E of Cooke City, in southern Montana along Beartooth Highway No. 212.\u00a0 The short gravel access road to the trailhead is on the N side of the highway, just\u00a0slightly SE of\u00a0the entrance to the … Continue reading Fizzle Lake, Beartooth Mountains, Montana (7-15-13)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,25],"tags":[105,182,106,26,214,104,417,213,216,212,215],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2013-beartoothscanadian-rockies","category-dingo-vacations","tag-american-dingo","tag-beartooth-mountains","tag-carolina-dog","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-fizzle-lake","tag-lupe","tag-montana","tag-ouzel-lake","tag-russell-creek","tag-russell-lake","tag-skull-lake"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/P1040941.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20782,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions\/20782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}