Photo Friday comes on Saturday. Sawtooth Mountain dayhikes

A couple of weeks ago I shared photos from the first stage of my September road-and-hiking trip, with several hikes in the Wallowa Mountains. From there, we moved on to Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains, an area I last hiked in (runs off to check records) 2007.

We (I was traveling with my brother- and sister-in-law) had our eye on a 2-3 night hike in the White Cloud Mountains, but first needed to do a couple of dayhikes to adjust to the time zone and the altitude, which while not Sierra-like would put us over 9000' much of the time.

Hike 1: Sawtooth Lake
10 miles, 1775'

This hike is one of the Sawtooth "must see" hikes, and is well worth the effort. The entire hike is scenic, and though the climb is significant, it's seldom excessively steep. We started early with the short drive from our campsite, leaving the TH before 8 a.m. After a mile and a bit of very gradual climb in the forest, we briefly joined the Alpine Way trail and began to climb.

 

The advantage when the climb got serious was that so did the views of the incredibly jagged ridge immediately to our north.

A goodly grunt took us to the ridge above Alpine Lake. The trail passes a quarter mile from the lake, and over 100' above it, so we decided not to lengthen our already sufficiently long day by dropping to the lake, unless we decided on the way back down that we really had to (spoiler alert: we didn't have to). As the trail climbed another 800+ feet to Sawtooth Lake, we enjoyed a number of very good vistas of Alpine Lake.

Alpine Lake from the trail.

The biome changed again as we mounted the next bench.

Excited to top this and see water. As usual, it wasn't the lake we were seeking. Not yet.

We were nicely distracted from the climb not only by the stunning views of the lake and valley we'd climbed above, but by smaller details closer to hand. I'm a sucker for abstract close-ups of rocks and trees, alive or dead.

Iron oxide, presumably, and lichen add color and texture to this rock.

How long did the tree live, and for how long has the fallen trunk been weathering in the dry air?

 In the all-important move, we reached the lake--the right lake--in time for lunch.

A massive logjam marks the outlet.

 
Tom and I left Carol to guard our packs while we took our cameras a little farther up and along the lake to an elevated vantage point for another perspective.

Looking toward Mt. Regan and the inlet.

From the hilltop, the water was a deep blue that the camera only partly captured.

Photos taken and lunch eaten, we began the long return to the car.

Hike 2: Alpine Way Ridgewalk

5.5 miles, 930'

It probably shouldn't have surprised us that the next day we didn't feel like doing another epic hike, especially as Tom and I planned to start a 2-night backpack trip the day after that. We opted for a hike with no particular destination, a ridge-line walk that promised (and delivered) good views.

 

In the morning we drove from our dispersed-camping site around to Redfish Lake, which is pretty much the heart of touristic activity in the Sawtooths. We'd tossed around a number of possible hikes, including the highly-rated hike to Bench lake, but didn't really feel either like doing the distance or the boat ride that would make it doable (morning temps hovered right around or below freezing, which tends to make me not want to go on the water).

 

Instead, we walked up Fishhook Creek, then climbed to the ridge to follow the Alpine Way trail in the direction of Marshall Lake (with no intention of reaching the lake). Disturbed weather made the hike a little exciting at times, but also yielded some great skies and good light.

 

The climb up the ridge passed through an aspen forest beginning to turn color.

The trees are watching you! Dropped branches make dark "eyes" in the creamy aspen bark. The bark forms scars when cut as well, and it seems irresistible to some people. Just don't do it. Leave it to the elk and the bears to scar the trees.

A nearby thunder-storm made us head for cover briefly, but the dark skies made the highlighted peaks stand out.

Across the valley, rain shafts seemed mostly to reach the ground.

The White Cloud Mountains possibly receiving vital rain.

Then the sun came back out, before it went in and sprinkled some more as we tried to eat.

 Time to head back down and prep to go backpacking!

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2023    
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