SAWTOOTH WILDERNESS AREA, IDAHO
Ok, so after the Goat Lake & Goat Falls hike on Saturday, I may or may not be obsessed with hiking to other lakes in the same Sawtooth Wilderness Area.
This past week, I did three hikes after work that involved a total of six lakes. All of them were beautiful. None of them topped the incredible Goat Lake, which clearly was intended to be spelled GOAT Lake. (GOAT = greatest of all time, get it?)
If you visit the Ketchum, ID area, be sure to do these first and save Goat Lake for last. :)
Norton Lakes
The Norton Lakes trail is 45 minutes north and west of Ketchum. After traveling down a maintained gravel road, and then a NON-maintained gravel road, I made it to the trailhead.
The hike itself was fairly easy, but man, I am STILL huffing and puffing up the hills. Although I felt much better when I got home and realized I hit an elevation of 9,140 ft - a new record for me! Here is a pic of the trail in:
Here is Norton Lake:
Here's another shot of the lake. I know the water has a green tint to it, but it is crystal clear. It's beautiful.
I'm kind of in love with the fact that when I save my live photos on loop, the loop video exports AND plays in other places. It creates a super cool effect!
At the lake, I saw a man who said hello. He is from the area and said he's been up here a million times. He also told me to keep hiking up the hill and that, just two minutes away, there is a second lake. I was so glad he told me!
Here's a shot of where he told me to go. Looks a little further than two minutes away.
Here is the second lake. A terrible picture since I shot it right into the sun, but the only shot I took.
The real bonus to hiking up to the second lake was the view of the valley when you turned around to hike back down. So pretty! (And again with the live photo - makes it super cool to show the stream running!)
Total miles = 5.07
Elevation gain = 1,524'
Peak elevation = 9,140'
Bonus footage: here is the view on the drive home. Idaho, you're making me fall in love with you with all this gorgeous scenery around every turn!
Bench Lakes
The Bench Lakes are a series of five small alpine glacial lakes, although I saw just two. The trailhead for Bench Lakes is an hour north of Ketchum, near Goat Lake. I was excited to be back up in this part of the Sawtooth Wilderness Area because the mountain peaks are absolutely stunning.
The trail in runs alongside Redfish Lake, an yet another alpine lake that is 4.5 miles long and .72 miles wide. It is HUGE and made for a lovely view behind the trees as I hiked along. In this pic below, can you spot the tiny white speck on the water, near the opposite shore? That's a boat!
And here's a glimpse of those gorgeous Sawtooth Mountains through the trees.
Made it to the first lake!
Looks like this hike would be prettier in the morning when the sun is on the mountains, instead of behind them. But I still got some cool shots with the clouds and the glint of the sun on the water.
Total miles = exactly 9
Elevation gain = 1,198'
Peak elevation = 7,813'
Titus Lake
Titus Lake is a quick and easy 3.5 mile trek, with 782' elevation gain. But with a peak elevation of 9,049 ft, it still gave the lungs a workout!
Here's a view on the way in:
And here is my first glimpse of the lake:
And here is a closer view. Again with the green water, but I swear to you it is super clear. See all the dark shadows in the water? Those are logs at the bottom of the lake.
Ok, are you lake-ed out yet? I hope not, because I have one more lake hike tomorrow that I am super excited about. Then I think we can take a little lake break. :)