Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / Montana / Northwest Montana

Wanless Lake, Cabinet Mountains

Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Kootenai National Forest (Trail 924, near Noxon)

Wanless Lake sits in a cirque in the southern Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, in northwest Montana, reached from Highway 200 near Noxon. The Forest Service lists Trail 924 to the lake at 9.3 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation change, and a 2023 essay on the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness site calls Wanless “the largest lake in the Cabinet Mountains.”

The trail crosses an exposed ridge in its middle miles, and much of the climb is given back on the drop to the lake.

The hike

Trails NW gives directions from Sandpoint, Idaho: east on Highway 200 to Forest Road 1022, three miles past the Noxon exit, then four miles to the end of the road. The Forest Service’s Cabinet Ranger District trail guide lists Road 1022 as the access for Trail 924.

According to Trails NW, the first few miles climb through forest, and after about three miles the trail moves onto an exposed ridgetop with “hot exposed slopes.” The high point, about 6,400 feet, comes after roughly five miles, where the trail crosses into the wilderness. From there it drops past Upper Lake to Wanless Lake. Trails NW puts the whole climb at about 3,500 feet with about 1,500 feet of descent, leaving “plenty of climbing for the return trip.”

Delaney Weltz, in a 2023 essay about a four-day family trip, describes hiking about 10 miles to the lake and spending two days there. The water showed “many shades of blue and green,” with rocks and boulders along one shore and thick evergreen forest on the other. The group then left the trail and bushwhacked through alder, fallen trees, and vines toward Buck Lake before rejoining the trail.

Inland NW Routes says there are six lakes on the upper slopes south of Wanless, and lists the round trip at 18.6 miles. Its separate page on Trail 912, a longer approach from Swamp Creek to Buck Lake, warns of a major stream crossing about 8 miles in that “can be challenging and dangerous for most of the year.”

Trails NW warns that “the mosquitoes are vicious.” It says grizzlies are “a rarity in the Cabinet Mountains” but encounters are possible, and the Kootenai’s wilderness page lists both grizzlies and black bears. The Forest Service adds that snowstorms can hit as late as July and as early as September.

For another northwest Montana lake trip, see Turquoise Lake in the Mission Mountains.

Tips

Camping

Camping is dispersed. The Kootenai National Forest’s wilderness page asks visitors to camp away from lakeshores and from areas where others may want solitude, to use existing fire rings and only dead wood broken by hand, and to put latrines at least 200 feet from camp and water. It says limits apply to the number of people and stock in a party, without giving numbers. Motorized and mechanized equipment, including bicycles and drones, is prohibited.

The entire forest falls under a food storage and sanitation order: all human, pet, and livestock food and refuse must be stored in a bear-resistant manner, and attractants such as bacon grease can’t be buried, discarded, or burned. Camp at least half a mile from any known carcass.

Inside Intel: Trails NW says “the best camping sites are located on the East side of the Lake,” and that Upper Lake, passed on the way in, has “several nice campsites.”

Trail facts

The Lowdown

The long climb to Wanless Lake:

The Forest Service lists 3,000 feet of elevation change on the 9.3-mile Wanless Lake trail, and you climb much of it again on the way out. See the camp meals reviewers say are worth carrying.

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Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.