Revett Lake is located in the Panhandle National Forest about a mile on the Idaho side of the Montana – Idaho border near Thompson Pass (Hwy 471), about 24 miles west of Thompson Falls, Montana. A good dirt road leaves the parking lot at the border and takes you about a mile to the trail head. The trail (Trail #9) is short, a mile and a half to two miles, and it is an easy climb of about a thousand feet to the lake. Despite rather heavy usage on the trail in the summer, no trash at all could be seen along the trail or at the lake and the day I was there I was all alone.
Terrace Lake sits about due north of one of my favorite places, Mount Headley in the Cube Iron – Silcox Roadless Area, but it is not approachable from that direction, instead, the trail head to the lake is at the end of the West Fork of Fishtrap Creek road: well, not at the very end, but believe me you don’t want to drive on that road any further. At the present time, the trail does not show on any map and the trail sign is missing. Other than that, it’s a cinch to find.
The trail itself was renovated about four years ago and it is the very best trail that I have ever seen. Those who worked on it really knew what they were doing! It winds and climbs about a thousand feet through beautiful forest for about 2 miles to the lake which, …well, I’ll let the photos say the rest.
About half of the following photos are of the trail itself and the balance are of the lake.
Revett Lake at 10 this morning. It is in the Panhandle National Forest just on the Idaho side of the Montana – Idaho border near Thompson Pass, about 24 miles west of Thompson Falls, Montana.
This is a photo tour of a loop hike on August 29, 2014 through the southeast tip of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. It started with USFS trail 178 at road 148 (3700 feet elevation) to USFS trail 63 then on 63 to USFS trail 360 (the Cabinet Divide trail at 6400 feet elevation). From there, south down the Cabinet Divide a mile and a half or so to USFS trail 489 and back down it about 5 miles to road 148 and up the road to the starting point. The total distance was about 11.5 miles and took 10 hours of hiking.
You can follow the route, the access road and the trails on the Kootenai National Forest Cabinet Ranger District map. (Note: Trail 531 is the old trail number to Bear Lakes: now the same trail is shown on all of the maps as trail 178.)
Trail head at USFS trail 489, Kootenai National Forest
Trail 178, Kootenai National Forest
Trail 178 gains elevation very sharply. Kootenai National Forest
Trail 63, Kootenai National Forest
Trail 63, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 63, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 63, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 63, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 63: Cabinet Divide in the distance – Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 63: Baree Mountain at the left of the photo. It is at the southern edge of the wilderness.
Trail 489 above Baree Lake, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 489, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Trail 489, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Baree Creek Trail 489, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Baree Creek Trail 489, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness
Road 148, Kootenai National Forest (There’s a sign near this one that reads: “No trailers or 2 wheel drive vehicles”)
This is my favorite photo from the trip, taken from the Cabinet Divide trail 360. The three big peaks in the photo are, from right to left, Carney Peak, Flat Top Mountain, and Engle Peak. In a couple of weeks we plan a hike through a pass just to the right of Carney from the far side of the range and back a mile or so along the Cabinet Divide trail. (The trail through the pass and the high Cabinet Divide trail can be plainly seen on Google Earth.)
