We arrived at the campground on Friday evening around 8:30pm and set camp just before the rain started falling. In fact, it rained most of the night. As you can imagine, at 6,513ft (1,985m), the morning was pretty chilly. With temperatures in the high 30’s, the warmth of our sleeping bags was irresistible...
Considering the slight possibility of rain on Saturday, we decided to postpone our hiking trip until Sunday and stay in the valley for the day. After attending an early morning Junior Ranger presentation on the life cycle of salmons, we picnicked on a little sandy beach at Redfish Lake. In the afternoon, Laura led us to a horse riding outfit just outside of Redfish Lake. We rode horses for an hour on the hills between Redfish Lake and Little Redfish Lake. Colin was a natural. He particularly enjoyed the guiding and steering aspect of horse riding. It took a little bit of convincing for Sidney to warm up to the idea, but once on the saddle, he loved every moment of it. Walter was given the stubborn horse who managed to stop at any opportunity to fill his mouth full of fresh grass (perfect personality match). As for Laura, well, her cowgirl genes quickly took over…
We finished the day with a wonderful Dutch oven meal; sausage and rice pilaf with apple crisp for dessert, courtesy of Chef Laura.
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| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 2) |
The next day, we hiked to Sawtooth Lake. What better way to celebrate Independence Day than reuniting ourselves with nature, freed from all the distractions of our daily routines. The trailhead is located at Iron Creek (6,710ft / 2,045m), just a few miles west of Stanley at the end of a forest road. The morning air was still chilly and the parking lot (dirt and wild grass clearing within the lodge pole pine forest) was almost empty. After an ultimate inventory check of our food and water supplies, we started the hike on a well marked trail. The lower portion of the trail had been retraced since our last hike and we were now closer to Iron creek, at least for the first quarter mile. The beginning section of the trail takes you through a dense lodge pole pine section of the forest and large trailside boulders on which the kids love to climb. As we passed the turn off to Stanley Lake, we imagined how fun it would be to one day hike directly from Stanley Lake to Iron Creek. Following the turnoff is a series of switchbacks. At this point, the scenery really opens up. You emerge from the trees onto a subalpine avalanche meadow where the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains dominate the northwestern landscape. Above us, the bright blue sky formed the perfect backdrop for the shining rocky walls.
We traversed a log bridge in order to cross Iron Creek and moved on to the steeper portions of the trail to reach the Alpine Lake junction. Two years prior, we hiked to beautiful Alpine Lake and, as we were starting to tire, we debated whether to make Alpine our final destination or keep going to Sawtooth Lake, our original goal. In our state of altitude induced confusion, we decided to continue higher. The trail was now harder to find, much steeper and filled with loose rocks. We exchanged words of encouragement as the going got tougher. We manipulated Sidney’s mind by telling him he could be the first six-year-old to climb up to Sawtooth Lake. It worked! He marched on, determined and focused on the ultimate goal.
Past the junction, the trail took us on a steep ridge overlooking Alpine Lake some 200 feet below, offering us a bird’s eye view of the azure lake, the surrounding avalanche prone slopes and further down in the valley, the little hamlet of Stanley. After a few more switchbacks, we encountered our first reward: a snow field. It was so surprising for the boys to hike in a landscape of trees, shrubs, flowers, and boulders on a warm, sunny afternoon in July and, suddenly, around a corner, be walking on snow. Snow balls soon started flying, Sidney slipped and Colin was sliding down the slope on his back side. Winter Bliss in July! We marched over a few more snowfields and even traversed a snow bridge to cross Iron creek, once again.
We then contoured a small, unnamed lake to eventually take our first glimpse of Sawtooth Lake (8,430 ft or 2,570m). Three hours after starting our hike, we were greeted by such an impressive panorama. The lake was almost completely covered by thousands of little ice sheets assembled like the pieces of a puzzle. Slopes of the surrounding peaks were covered with snow. The air was fresh, the sky was blue, and we were simply mesmerized by the majestic beauty. We ate lunch on the rocky shore and entertained ourselves by throwing rocks on the ice sheets covering the lake. Surprised by the fact that the rocks we were throwing on the ice were not breaking it, we realized that the ice sheets were still anywhere between 6 and 10 inches thick. Sidney even dipped his feet in the freezing water. For sure, he was the only six-year-old boy to put his feet in a frozen lake at this altitude. As the wind started to pick up, we covered ourselves with a sweater and reluctantly started our journey back down the mountain. After a few stops along the creek to play in the water, we made it back to the car in 2 ½ hours.
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| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 3) |
Back at camp, Laura and I made an executive decision to skip the Dutch oven cooking routine and go into town for a bite to eat. We were all pretty toasted after such a long day at altitude. After dinner, we headed to a little unknown natural hot springs situated right along Valley Creek between Stanley and Lower Stanley. As the sun was slowly setting, we enjoyed the “natural hot tub”all to ourselves with unbeatable views of the Sawtooth range. Our legs were feeling rather soothed at this moment. Since the boys wanted to watch the fireworks, we found a spot to park outside of Stanley along the highway. The 30 minute wait was entertained with reading stories shortly resulting in snores made by Sidney. The rest of us were on the verge of dozing off when the first rocket lit the sky. The bang of the explosions echoed on the mountains. The cows in the field started mooing. We even heard thunder in the distance as dark ominous clouds were moving in over the mountains. I don’t think we witnessed the grand finale because fireworks were still lighting the sky as we were driving back to camp for a very deep sleep.
The next morning, after lifting camp, we headed to the fish hatchery pond to throw a few lines in the water. Sidney caught a 6 inch trout and although Colin did not catch any fish, he became very proficient at casting. Suddenly, we looked at our watch and it was already 1:30pm and we had not yet eaten lunch. Time flies when you are having fun… Unfortunately, it was also time to start driving home. In the car, the boys were soon begging to go camping again: As soon as we can…
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| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 4) |
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