We got a late start today and then I drove us all around looking for a small, out of the way fishing spot on the Bitterroot River but we never found it. We decided to go back to the public fishing access at the Florence Bridge which is close to our house but its usually packed with fishers, floaters, and people with their dogs. I don’t think any of us were too hopeful as it was getting late in the morning. When we got there there were few people there and the river looked still. We decided to walk north and I kept walking until I saw signs of life and after quite a ways up river I found it. They were jumping all over and it was hard for them to resist the worm.

We walked away with several rainbow trout.

Just north of Victor on the east side of highway 93 you will find signs for Glen Lake. It is a nice drive up to 6800 feet (from 3400) with views overlooking Victor and Stevensville, if it weren’t so smoky we would have had views of the Sapphire Mountains as well. On the way up we hit some traffic (see little black bear picture right).

At the trail head are 4 parking spots with plenty of room for additional parking. It starts uphill immediately and stays that way most of the hike in, approximately 2 and 1/4 miles in, going from 6800 ft to approximately 7700 ft. Any real hiker would consider this an easy walk but it was a little more than we expected; our 7 year old son did very well though. Most of the hike consisted of views of the Bitterroot Mountains through the burnt forest.

There were probably 4 groups of people on the trail which was slightly disappointing but didn’t present an inconvenience. Trails.com reported over a dozen vehicles parked at the trail head back in ‘98 due to the trails easy status, maybe there were few people there due to all the smoke in the area but if there were a dozen people on that trail my opinion might be a little different. Despite all the burnt land and the other hikers; the views along the way and then reaching the lake made it all well worth it.

The 6 acre Glen lake sits back int he Bitterroots at an elevation of 7741ft. We packed our poles looking for the rainbow trout the MT FWP said existed but we saw no signs of life in that lake. Still a very nice place, probably better for camping than fishing. The hike in took us longer than expected (about an hour and a half) so our fishing time was limited as we needed to get back over the top of the mountain before the sun went down. The hike back was quite easier than the hike in, as the hike out only consisted of hiking up the backside of the mountain, a couple hundred feet; the rest of the hike was all down hill from there. Back to the truck and back down the switch backs, we hit more traffic (see picture right).