Sawtooths

Our second smoke refugee backpacking trip was to the Sawooths in Idaho.  Typically in late September this would be a cold, and potentially wet and miserable outing.  This year our timing had us there in a week with average temperatures ten degrees above normal and sunny blue skies.  Lovely.  We discussed many different options as we were driving, and settled on a short three day trip after we received a text from our friend Gina asking if we wanted to go with them to the Subway in Zion in less than a week.  Our time in Idaho would be limited.  A short backpacking trip and a short visit with my mom.

Hike track link

Alice Lake ebird list

Scenery from Pettit to Alice

Our three day trip was the Alice Toxaway Lakes Loop.  This is a mere 17 miles.  Yes, we could have done it as a day hike, but we did very easy days, took out our camp chairs, and spent the afternoons admiring the scenery.  Peaceful and relaxing.

El Capitan at Alice Lake

The far end of Alice Lake

Another angle of El Capitan

It did get cold at night

After watching the sun rise at Alice Lake we headed over to Toxaway.  Another short day, with time to enjoy the views.

I think I enjoyed the scenery ever better at Twin Lakes, so we scouted some potential camp sites as we headed up the trail.

After the pass heading over to Toxaway there were a couple of small ponds, one of which had what looked like glacial flour in the water.  We never did see anything that looked a glacial source for the water, so who knows.

And then we were at Toxaway Lake and all we had to do was choose a campsite and enjoy the views.

Toxaway Lake eibrd list

And try to keep the cheeky chipmunks from running up our legs.

The sunset at Toxaway was lovely.

Sunrise the next morning was a winner as well.

Our best fall colors of the trip were on the hike out.