Every year Ben and I have moved our fall road trip earlier than the past year's trip, hoping to have good weather. We may have had the worst overall weather this year, but still counted the trip as a success after doing an amazing traverse of the eastern half of the Sawtooth Wilderness in Idaho.
With 20 of the 40 miles being cross country, it was scenic, offered a lot of solitude, and was extremely difficult. I'm already looking forward to going back for the western half next year.
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| Good trailhead display |
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| Trailhead map with our route drawn in |
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| Always nice to avoid a ford; Ben's picture |
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| First major pass at 9300' |
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| Looking toward Imogene Lake |
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| Imogene Lake |
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| Start of our day cross country |
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| Perfect examples of lateral moraines, with Hell Roaring Lake |
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| Looking up at Finger of Fate |
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| Lunch tarn, below Finger of Fate |
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| Climbing up to the pass below Finger of Fate |
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| Pass below Finger of Fate; Ben's picture |
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| Not bad if it hadn't been snowy |
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| Midway down; Ben's picture |
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| Looking back up the snowy gully below the Finger of Fate |
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| More lakes, on the cross country section |
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| Looking back at Finger of Fate and our descent gully |
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| Big talus, Little Ben |
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| Saddleback Lake and Elephant's Perch |
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| Fulfilling our twofie quota |
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| Camp time, the smaller lake above Alpine Lake |
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| Showing the next five miles of cross country to the high pass at center left |
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| More granite, more lakes |
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| Getting closer to our high pass at center right |
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| More granite, more lakes |
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| Ben's picture |
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| Ben headed to the first pass to access our high pass |
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| Our first pass, with the southern Sawtooth Range beyond; Ben's picture |
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| Southern Sawtooth Range |
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| Traversing to the high pass below Thomson Peak |
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| Looking back at our tracks coming down the first pass |
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| Southern Sawtooth Range from our high pass at 10,400' |
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| Looking north, with frozen lakes |
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| Looking back at the high pass; we had to go around the snow on crap scree |
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| Day two lunch next to a half-frozen tarn |
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| Looking down the lower basin area |
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| Looking back up toward the upper basin |
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| Ben in the lower basin |
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| Looking down the last bit to Goat Lake |
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| Ben along the Goat Lake boot path, then down to the trailhead |
That Elephant perch at Saddleback lake looks sweet. I need to see that in person sometime. Looks like an awesome adventure. I need to invite myself along next fall. :) I'll break your weather curse.
ReplyDeleteWe really need a good weather god with us :) . And yeah, that's a very cool spot. Most people come from the other side, but coming from the south for that angle was really neat.
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