My Happy Place: The Sawtooth Mountains, Part 1
I fell in love with the Sawtooth Mountains. Despite some automotive issues that caused our visit to be a bit shorter than anticipated, we made the most of our few days and hiked one of the best trails I’ve ever been on – the first section of the jaw-droppingly beautiful Alice-Toxaway Lakes Loop. More on Alice tomorrow, but first some photos taken from our amazing dispersed campsites at Decker Flats, which is along the Salmon River, and near Baker Creek as well as some of the viewpoints we stopped at, a couple random explorations, and our other hike on the Norton Lakes Trail. I swooned over the dramatic geologic features, snow-capped peaks, and signature jagged profile of the Sawtooths, but the things I appreciated most perhaps were the vast spaces, abundance of free camping sites, and the clean, piney-smelling air.
The Norton Lakes Trail was a few hours walking out and back up a thousand feet to the glacial Norton Lake which was a jade green and really quite lovely. Unfortunately we were surrounded by 2 or 3 different thunderstorm systems during our hike but thankfully they waited to converge on us until we had reached the lake. We stayed fairly dry, but our pictures ended up mostly dark and gloomy despite the editing I did to lighten them.
Idaho….the salmon river…..Frank church river of no return wilderness….the most amazing place that set me life on its current course. Thanks for sharing and letting me revisit in my mind.
I remember you telling me that you had an amazing experience canoeing down the Snake, but you’ll have to tell me the whole story over that beer at Taos Mesa. 🙂 I absolutely fell in love with the mountains in Idaho and the Sawtooths are a place that I can’t stop thinking about – totally amazing.