Adventures in Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness

On our visit to Idaho for the eclipse, we spent two nights in Ketchum, a ski resort town in a valley just south of the Sawtooth National Forest. Ketchum is a cute little town, but our main reason for being in the area was to do some hiking in the mountains. On Saturday morning (the weekend before the eclipse) we hit the road by 6AM and drove 65 miles north to the Iron Creek trailhead to hike to Sawtooth Lake. We saw a beautiful sunrise along the way.

The Sawtooth mountains lit up at sunrise.

Sunrise over the mountains.

Our hike for the day was amazing - and long. We hiked for 14 miles along Iron Creek, past Alpine Lake, around the edge of Sawtooth Lake, and over a ridge through a burned area toward the McGown Lakes. It was a bit chilly when we started, but starting so early was a great idea to avoid the heat and crowds.

The trail wound through trees, past lakes, and over ridges. It was pretty quiet for the first 4 miles.

Chipmunks were about the only animals we saw (besides birds).

Heading up to the mountains.

Don't fall! We had to cross a number of streams on the hike.

You can see why they call them "Sawtooth Mountains." Very distinct and beautiful peaks.

Snow near the shore of Alpine Lake.

Crossing over the ridge between Alpine Lake and Sawtooth Lake.

We hiked up far enough for snow!

Sawtooth Lake was spectacular, with the snowy mountains on the opposite shore.

It was a beautiful scene on a sunny day with cool mountain air.

An overview of the lake.

We posed for a picture on the hike out, as the trail was getting pretty crowded.

Panorama of the Sawtooths.

We hiked past this particularly jagged section again on the hike out.

We passed through a couple of meadows with colorful wildflowers.

Two thumbs up for the Sawtooth Lake hike.

After our long hike, we stopped in the town of Stanley for lunch, then walked around a bit at Redfish Lake. The lake was named after the Sockeye Salmon that used to migrate up the rivers to breed in the lake. Dams and over-fishing almost put an end to that migration, but recently the fish have been reintroduced. The lake was crowded with families enjoying the beautiful Saturday weather. We took a short hike along a stream and past the shore of the lake.

Paul's turn to not fall in the water!

People riding horses across the hills around Redfish Lake.

Rapids on Redfish Lake Creek.

At this point we'd walked more than 17 miles, so we drove back to Ketchum to relax and have some dinner. A very successful day.

Downtown Ketchum was cute and had quite a few restaurants and upscale shops.

Dinner at Sawtooth Brewery.

We highly recommend hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains. It's a vast wilderness with great vistas. While we didn't see any of the big animals we've seen in other forests and national parks, the mountain and lake views more than made up for that. I think we'll be back some day!