Kootenai Lake or Poia Lake BC Campsite?

[b_kloos88]

I'm deciding on an itinerary and need opinions on which if these sites is better, more scenic, etc. I'm aware that they aren't near each other. Thanks.

[sj in cal]

Never been to Poia Lake. I had Kootenai Lake last summer. It was okay, after the +20 day hikers from the Goat Haunt boat left at ~6pm. They were having a picnic on the beach about 30 feet from the bc sites. Unless you’re hoping to catch sight of some moose, it would be hard for me to recommend this “backcountry” site. Not much backcountry feel.

[GuloGulo]

Poia Lake is much more remote feeling than Kootenai due to the frequent day hikers as described above. I thought the pit toilet at Kotenai was one of the worst due to all the use. The water in Kootenai Lake (which is really part of the stream) is slow and stagnant looking. It was kind of yucky compared to the water we are use to seeing in Glacier streams and Lakes. Kootenai will also have mosquitos more so than Poia. The best part of Kootenai is the resident moose population and the fishing if you walk a mile or so upstream.

I'm always worried about camping in a site frequented by day hikers and fishermen. Some of them are less conscious about leaving a clean camp and this creates a bear hazard. I've seen too many dropping their chips or other parts of their lunch on the ground and leaving it for the critters. Back country campsites that are popular with day users obviously get much more use and are not as clean.

[pasqualli]

IMO, Kootenai is slightly more scenic than Poia, both are pretty average Glacier BC camps. As others have mentioned, KOO has a good resident moose population, although when last I was at Poia there was a mother and calf at the west end of the lake as I hiked up to Red Gap Pass. Kootenai will probably be more buggy and definitely be visited by day hikers. Although the day hikers aren't there early in the morning or over night which is usually the only time I'm in camp anyway, so their immediate presence is not that big of a deal to me.

As for the water at Kootenai, I'd recommend getting it from the river/stream that runs into the Waterton river just north of camp from the east, instead of from the lake.

[sj in cal]

I thought the pit toilet at Kotenai was one of the worst due to all the use.

An understatement to say the least!

[Egads]

I spent June 23 at Poia Lake. It has 4 campsites. 3 were covered by snow banks and were unusable. The entire area was swarming with thousands of mosquitoes. The campsites are not scenic at all, but there is a nice ridge above the lake "dam" that gives views in all directions. My son & I watched 7 bighorn sheep pass through and eat the new grass.

[Heff936]

Poia is one of my least favorite backcountry camps, while Kootenai is closer to the middle of my list. While I don't disagree with the other posts here regarding the pit toilet or slow moving water, the almost guaranteed moose watching makes up for some of these other shortcomings. For me, at least, Poia has very little going for it. The camps are located in the trees on a hill with no views and limited lake access.

[ThomasMore]

We received our permit to go over Stoney Indian Pass this summer. What I think I'm hearing is that Kootenai Lake is not a very nice camping site. I particularly like cold faster running water and few mosquitoes. We are doing this hike in late August, do you think the mosquitoes will be at a minimum at that time or does the slow running water and wetlands create a summer long problem? Perhaps you folks can tell me when you spent time at the campsites at Kootenai?

[Heff936]

Mosquitoes shouldn't be much of a problem in late August. I was at KOO last year in mid August and they weren't bad. We have typically been going from MOL or GLH to KOO and then on toward Boulder Pass. We prefer KOO to STO because it gets us into FRA earlier the next day.

[ThomasMore]

Thank you! That is good to know. My wife wants to stay at KOO because we don't have to go as far in one day. We got set up by the backcountry office to go from MOL to the Goat Haunt shelters. From what I heard about the stagnant water at KOO, that doesn't excite me either. I'm leaning toward going the extra 2.5 miles to Goat Haunt where there are flush toilets and running filtered water. We wouldn't have any wet tent or foot print to pack and we can take our sweet time waiting for the first boat to Waterton at 11:25AM.

We never put in for Goat Haunt. Our first choice was STO and then KOO. But we got Goat Haunt for some reason. We are not as young as we used to be, so maybe KOO will work- got to keep the peace. I still don't like the stagnant water thing. Hopefully we get it figured out as to whether we want to change from Goat Haunt to KOO as a walk-in request. Perhaps we will have no choice.

We were also thinking about heading up to Margaret Lake once we got settled in at MOL. Any thoughts??

We did the FRA last summer. Beautiful! We were surprised that we were the only campers there.

We truly appreciate your input!