Parking
Start at the signed Clay Butte Trailhead #614 on Clay Butte Road along the Beartooth Highway. Parking capacity and facilities were not verified.
Overview
About Granite Lake Trail via Clay Butte
Why go
- Large cirque lake above timberline
- Backcountry campsites and firewood are noted at the lake
- Five trail miles from Clay Butte
Heads up
- Ten miles at high altitude with a net climb back to the trailhead
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Beartooth Highway map
Full mapElevation8,780–9,573 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
1 active Beartooth Highway alert
- ClosureBeartooth Highway seasonal closure and falling-rock advisoryBeartooth Highway (US-212) is closed for the season between Cooke City and Red Lodge; do not plan to travel the highway as a through route.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Beartooth Highway Tour Guide
Your drive to Granite Lake Trail via Clay Butte, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Beartooth Highway. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Beartooth Highway audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Clay Butte Lookout Detour0:00 / 0:31
“Up ahead is the access road for Clay Butte Lookout. The tower is two point six miles up a steep, rough gravel spur, so I'd skip this detour in a low-clearance car.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Beartooth Highway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Pilot and Index Peaks Overlook
- Beartooth Falls
- The Older Volcanoes
- Beartooth Lake
- 62 audio storiesacross Beartooth Highway’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf, Bison, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 82 trails, 36 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Granite Lake Trail via Clay Butte
The hikeThis is a 10-mile out-and-back from Clay Butte Trailhead 614 to Granite Lake, about five miles…
This is a 10-mile out-and-back from Clay Butte Trailhead #614 to Granite Lake, about five miles each way. The established approach drops roughly 900 feet to the lake; expect that net climb on the return, plus rolling sections along the way. Allow about six to seven hours for this high-altitude day hike. The mapped route ends at the northeast lake approach; its final short connection to the shore is not explicit in available mapping.
The lakeGranite Lake sits at 8,781 feet in a high cirque above timberline and covers 228 acres in the…
Granite Lake sits at 8,781 feet in a high cirque above timberline and covers 228 acres in the Clarks Fork drainage. The open, high-country lake is the payoff for the long approach. Campsites and firewood are noted at the lake, and rainbow trout are listed there.
Route choiceThis entry follows the Clay Butte approach.
This entry follows the Clay Butte approach. A separate route from Muddy Creek Trail #612/568 is listed at seven miles one way with about 540 feet of climbing on the way in; that is a different start and is not part of this mapped route.
Access and effortStart at the signed Clay Butte Trailhead 614 on Clay Butte Road along the Beartooth Highway.
Start at the signed Clay Butte Trailhead #614 on Clay Butte Road along the Beartooth Highway. The trailhead is already near 9,580 feet, so the 10-mile distance and high elevation make this a substantial outing even though the lake is lower than the start. The return climb is the main effort to plan for.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Beartooth Highway
42 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
22 sightingsGray WolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
49 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
122 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
260 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
16 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Beartooth Highway. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
