Otter Lake

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N/S ? ??.??? W/E ??? ??.???  [] In Montana, United States

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Enjoy a great drive, hike, and lakes in your quest for the cache. Drive about ten miles north of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge into Beaverhead National Forest and hike another 2 miles to find the cache.

Although we called the geocache, Otter Lake, you'll actually see at least four lakes (Elk Lake, Hidden Lake, Goose Lake, and Otter Lake) on your adventure. If you drive in from the east, you'll also pass Henry's Lake too.

To get to the hike and geocache, you can drive in from the east or west.

From the west, you'll exit from I-15 exit Monida, Montana. It's about 35 miles to the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Drive through the Refuge.

From the east, you'll be on US 20. Look for Red Rock Pass Road (also known as Boot Jack Road and FR 053) heading west. The road will turn from pavement to gravel. You'll pass the Continental Divide, leave Idaho, and enter Montana. You'll drive about 20 miles to the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

From either direction, look for Elk Lake Road and turn north (N 44 36.954 W 111 39.086 elevation 6736ft). The sign says Elk Lake Camp and Hidden Lake (11 miles). Set your mileage to 0. At 2.9 miles, you'll leave the Refuge and enter the Beaverhead National Forest. At 4.4 miles, you'll pass Elk Lake. At 5.3 miles you'll see the Elk Lake Camp. At 9.2 miles, you'll park and hike the rest of the way. Park at (N 44 42.828 W 111 36.447 elevation 6800ft).

There are two ways to start your hike. You can start at (N 44 42.829 W 111 36.445 elevation 6628ft) and hike along the spring to the lake. Then, walk along a narrow, rough trail along the shore. Or, you can start at (N 44 42.850 W 111 36.459) and walk through the woods to an overlook of the lake. This start has more elevation gain, but it's an easier trail. Both hikes intersect and continue along the shore of the Hidden Lake. You'll reach the end of the lake in about 1 mile. Then, you'll reach Goose Lake (a small, shallow lake) at about 1.5 miles and Otter Lake at about 1.7 miles. The geocache is a total of 1.78 miles NE of the parking lot on your GPS.

We placed the cache close to the best viewpoint of the lake just off the trail. The tan ammo box cache contains a log book, a camera, and treasures.

Be sure to keep your eye out for wildlife. We saw signs of deer, elk, and bear, but only saw squirrels and a muskrat.

Fellow geocachers Cory the Hooked Trout and Rykybunch will look after the cache during those times when we are not available to attend to it.

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)

Jura lbh frr gur fvta sbe Bggre Ynxr, pbagvahr nybat gur genvy. Gura, uvxr hc gur uvyy ba gur yrsg. Gur pnpur vf haqre n snyyra gerr pbirerq jvgu oenapurf. (Decrypted Hints)

Find...

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Logged Visits ( 14 total. )

14

Cache Logs

August 1 by dawhite (40 found) We enjoyed a nice hike from Hoodoo pass to get to this one. The day was hot but bearable. Beautiful views. TNLN TFTC. dawhite [view this log]

June 23 by Snowman4748 (2 found) We"ve hiked by this for many years and it is in a great location. I'm glad I finally looked to see if there were any caches close by. This was one of the best I've been to. Fishing on Otter and Goose was really good. [view this log]

August 3, 2008 by JD&KL (135 found) We hiked in from the north at Cliff Lake. It was a nice day and a great hike, Although we saw no wildlife we did see a lot of signs of wildlife. We left a pic on the camera. TFTC TNLN [view this log]

August 2, 2008 by KayCees (1273 found) We have been wanting to get this cache for a few years, we come to Island Park every year at least twice and have wanted to make it to this cache for quite sometime and this time it worked into our schedule. We were not disapointed!! What a great hike and area!! We have fished Elk lake and had fun and the fishing on the lakes on the way to otter lake was great as well. A few of us even couldnt resist the rope swing towards the end of Hidden lake and took the opertunity to swing into the lake. We enjoyed the day and the hike and we will be back!!!! TFTCSL [view this log]

June 26, 2007 by Geobrigade (1048 found) TFTC I have been coming to this area to fish for over 15 years and have recently picked up the geocache sport. What a great suprise and find and have a great cache at Otter Lake. It makes you wish there were caches at Goose, Hidden, and Elk lakes. We took the $1 bill and left two TBs and three cool gem swag bags for the next to find. SL. Cheers! [view this log]

Current time: 11/21/2009 4:18:09 AM
Last Updated: 8/2/2009 11:11:59 PM
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum