Grand Sawtooth Loop, Idaho
Total Mileage: 80 miles (including side-trips)
Total elevation gain: 15,000 feet (approximate)
Scenery: 10
Solitude: 7
Difficulty: 5
Our itinerary: 6 nights 7 days (due to small wildfire, trail closure/open occurred during the trip: that made us hike an unusual loop of grand sawtooth loop)
Day1: Grandjean traihead -- North Baron Creek
Day2: North Baron Creek --Alpine Lake
Day3: Alpine Lake --Lake 8861 (side trip)
Day4: Lake 8861--10 Lakes Basin (side trip, off-trail) --Three island Lake (side trip)
Day5: Three Island Lake--a mile before Grandjean trailhead
Day6: a mile before Grandjean trailhead --Grandjean trailhead --Sawtooth Lake
Day7: Hike out
2022 summer, we chose Idaho for our adventure destination. Not many people go to Idaho for backpacking by flying, but we knew it would be beautiful. We have a "Backpacking Idaho" book, and we searched and dreamed for a while to go to Idaho for backpacking. One of our main backpackings we wanted to do was Grand Sawtooth Loop. This is 70 mile loop in the Sawtooth mountain range and go through a lot of lakes. I got interested in this hike, because 1) I like loop hikes, 2) I like backpacking relatively long (more than overnight but less than 2 weeks), 3) I love lakes, 4) I love hiking above a tree line, 5) I like hiking with solitude.
When we arrived at Grandjean trailhead, we saw a sign put by Sawtooth National Forest service. It indicated that a part of a loop was closed due to wildfire in the area. Luckily most of the loop was still open, and the sky was not smokey at all. So we started hiking. Since we hit the trail at 4 p.m., we only hiked 3 miles on the first day. Besides, we heard thunders in the distance, so it was better not to climb too much and we camped in the trees. Although it was just 3 miles, we saw a black bear!!! The bear was on the trail. As we approached, the bear stood up and checked what was coming. Then as soon as the bear saw humans he ran away. Idaho bears are very scared of humans, probably due to hunting and they knew they were not protected like ones in the National Parks.
Next day we started hiking at 5 a.m. (and every day at 5 a.m.) The first lake of the loop was Baron Lake. Oh my goodness. The Baron lake is super beautiful. The mountain over the lake is very spiky, "the Sawtooth", which I hadn't never really seen the shape before. Very cool. The mountain shapes were mirroring on the lake. It was so pretty and to spend some time at the lake we had an early long lunch break there. Gorgeous!
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| Baron Lake |
It was hard to leave the Baron lake, but we headed for the upper Baron Lake next. Upper Baron Lake is a little above the first Baron Lake. Upper one is slightly smaller than lower one, but this was equally attractive blue color. Then the trail goes up to Baron Divide. On the way up to the pass, two lower and upper Baron Lakes can be seen below. The two lake surrounding by massive mountains was such a wowing view. There are many ways to admire the beauty of lakes. Being at the same level as lake at the shore is great, and looking below lake's blueness is another way to enjoy them. When multiple lakes can be seen below, it is extra gorgeous.
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| Baron Lakes |
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Alpine Lake | | Upper Crammer Lake |
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At Baron Divide, we had snack. I ate anpan (Japanese bread, red bean paste inside) as my mountain top snack as usual. Food is always more delicious in the mountain. Then we descended to the other valley. We wanted to camp by lake above a tree line, so we stopped a little early in the afternoon at Alpine lake. Alpine lake is another beautiful lake and glad we had a great campsite. Mr.N as usual swam in the lake, and even I did, because it was a hot afternoon probably over 85F. In Idaho summer in the dry climate at high altitude, it gets hot after sun comes out but it is chilly in the morning. Two not-so-good things about this campsite was related to the fact that day hikers have access here. Due to that, chipmunks got close to human and expected to be fed. I am sure that they got food from human before. They came again and again so I had to scare them. Also when I scare them I noticed they always ran and hid in the dead tree. So I had to block the entry to the tree. Then those brat chipmunks had to run uphill to run away. They were very fat: they need to run more. Another OK thing was that campers were not only us, actually at least 4 parties were camping along Alpine Lake. Far enough not to see humans, but one party was chatting loud until 9 p.m. We went to sleeping bag at 8 p.m., so they bothered me for an hour. Other than that it was really nice. Those people were I guess just overnighters. Next day we went down to the tree area then again climbed up above tree line. The first lake of the day was Crammer Lakes (lower, then upper). Especially upper Crammer lake was pretty. The water was extremely clear. We filtered water here for the upcoming climbing to the pass.
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| unnamed heart shape lake |
This pass, Crammer Pass.....I really really loved it. On the way to the pass there are many unnamed lakes. In Sawtooth, many lakes are gem even without names! First lovely one on the way to the Crammer pass was a shape of heart. What a color and what an amazing mountains around. Magnificent.
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| pika |
Climbing more and more from there, more talus field appeared. Cute residents in the talus at high altitude? Pika! One pika appeared from big rock at the top of hill and said, "Peeee!" for four times. He shouted towards below talus field. I was very impressed how big their voices considering their body sizes. I love seeing pika.
The most impressive thing at the pass was that the shape of mountain as below! This is really cool needles and I couldn't stop staring at them. We sat at the top of the pass with view of these and had a long lunch. What a gorgeous place to have a meal. I again had anpan and Japanese bars (I only eat Japanese bars. I can't bear with American chewy bars. They stick to teeth too much).
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| Crammer Pass |
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| unnamed lake |
After the pass we descended into another valley and saw more unnamed lakes and named lakes. The first unnamed lake after the pass is in the left picture. Very deep greenish blue. Each lake has its own unique color and each is mesmerizing.
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Hidden Lake
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Then We descended to Hidden Lake. Beautiful. I was wondering why it is named hidden. Very big lake and obvious. One thing I can think of is access. From any trailheads, it takes at least 2 days to reach here, meaning 4 day trip at least to come to Hidden lake and go back. Maybe that's why it is called Hidden lake. Mr.N jumped into the lake and I took pictures and had snack here. A guy was fishing here. Some lakes have trouts in Sawtooth.
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Edna Lake
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Next lake was Edna lake. You can tell by now we went to so-many-lakes. It was a dream backpacking route visiting lake after lake and all are amazing. Edna lake was a good option to camp of the day, but it was crowded. We saw at least 4 tents already set up when we arrived around 3 p.m. there.
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| lake8861 |
We love solitude, so we went to a side trail and a little bit of off-trail to camp at lake 8861. Some lakes don't have official names and they are called at their altitude. This lake is at 8861 feet. We chose that lake, because backpacking in Idaho book by Wilderness Press indicates that lake 8861 is deserted and very beautiful and worth doing a side trip there. Despite of the off-trail portion to reach to lake 8861, there was a couple already set up camp at the lake. We went to the other side of them and set up a tent. Later one other guy came on the other side to camp. I was a bit disappointed to see three parties, because my expectation was "deserted" as written in the book. Anyhow, the lake was pretty, especially mountains mirroring on the lake in the evening and morning. Another interesting thing at this campsite was that we found that deer was sleeping very close to our tent. When we got up at 5 a.m. and got out of tent, deer ran out near the tent. There was a spot grass was very flat: obviously the deer was sleeping there (and actually we heard noise to make bed when we went to bed, it was deer).
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| Ardeth Lake |
Next morning we came back to Edna lake from side trip, then continued the loop. Next lake after Edna lake was Vernon Lake. We heard a horse crying (sounded like complaining) there. Then the next was Ardeth Lake, which is Mr.N's favorite lake during Grand Sawtooth Loop.
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| 10 Lake Basin |
Here we were ahead of schedule, so we decided to do off-trail adventure around Ardeth Lake. As you can see in the picture of Ardeth Lake above, there is a basin above Ardeth Lake. Map shows "10 Lakes Basin"with many lakes (about 10). The left picture is the first lake we reached on the 10 Lake Basin. If you compare Ardeth Lake picture and left picture, you can tell we went up the hill. Mr.N swam here. There was absolutely nobody in the 10 lake basin, therefore Mr.N jumped into the lake naked. After we enjoyed the first lake, we decided to explore more lakes. These below pictures are more lakes on the 10 Lakes Basin. This basin was soooooooo pretty.
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10 Lake Basin
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| 10 Lakes Basin |
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| 10 Lakes Basin |
After half a day we explored the 10 Lakes Basin where there is nobody else, we got back to an official trail and continued trekking. Now going up to the pass. It was really nice to see below Ardeth lake and multiple lakes on the 10 Lake Basin from the pass.
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| Looking 10 Lakes Basin Below |
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| Spangle Lake |
After the pass a chain of lakes still continues. After Edna Lake, it will take more than 2 days from any trailhead,
so it was quite quiet. We passed Spangle Lake, Lake Ingeborg, Rock Slide Lake. Every single lake is pretty. Then we took another side trip to Three Island Lake. Just 1 mile side trip and it is easy: on trail.
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| Three Island Lake |
Three Island Lake is named so, because there are three rock islands on the lake. We camped here at the lake. Nobody was there; complete solitude. First night at Alpine lake, and second night at lake 8861 were both not only us at the lakes camping, thus this campsite was extra great due to solitude. What a wonderful experience having beautiful lake in alpine only for us. As usual, Mr.N dove in the lake and I took pictures of the lake. Then we had dinner.
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Fern Falls
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The next morning was a little sad, because we had to leave the high alpine lake area and needed to descend the valley to complete the loop. Oh well we had more backpacking to come in the trip, so it was okay. It was a long descend: this day we covered 17 miles. There were two options to camp. One is a car campground at the trailhead, or backcounty camp a mile before the trailhead. We saw a flat space when we started this loop a mile after trailhead. Since car campground is not free (we love free), we decided to camp a mile before trailhead. The plan was finish early in the morning and head for the next backpacking. Although I wrote the 17 mile was boring, it is actually scenic, especially Fern Falls was pretty.
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First Trail Creek Lake
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The next early morning we came back to the trailhead: we thought we did all the grand loop open that time. Then I looked around and noticed that partial trail closure sign was gone!!! Oh WOW. Probably the closure was due to a very small fire and I guessed it was totally contained. We then decided to do the missed part. We sorted out the food and started backpacking within an hour. After 5 miles of uphill, we came back to the alpine lake area again. Happy. The first lake we reached on this day was Trail Creek Lakes. An official trail goes to the first Trail Creek Lake of several. The color of lake is deep greenish blue. Really pretty. The lake color changes depending on what time of the day. We arrived there before sun hit the water, so it was deep blue. I loved it.
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Upper Trail Creek Lakes
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Then we decided to explore the other Trail Creek Lake, which requires off-trail portions. One of the reasons is that first Trail Creek Lake is 5 mile away from the trailhead, so some day hikers were at the lake (for them 10 mile out and back day hike). Dayhikers were crammed at the end of official trail and no hint going off-trail to upper lakes. We wanted some solitude at the lake, so we explored other Trail Creek Lakes. We walked around at least two more upper Trail Creek Lakes. It is very beautiful and I am glad we did that. Also it was nice to see look down the first Trail Creek Lake: another angle is nice too. It was hard to leave Trail Creek Lakes, but we moved on.
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On the way to Observation Peak
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Next we did a side trip to hike up to Observation Peak. An official trail exists to go to the top of Observation Peak, but obviously not many people go there, since this is a side trip in addition to the standard grand Sawtooth loop. On the way to Observation Peak, we saw in the distance Trail Creek Lakes (lower and upper) as you can see in the left picture. Whoa. Another beautiful scenery.
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Observation Peak
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As you can see in the left and above pictures, there was wildfire somewhere. The sky was smokey. If there was no smoke, it would have been even better, but I was still happy to see such mountain range.
From the top, 360 view of the Sawtooth. This is the reason the mountain range is called Sawtooth indeed. Unique and beautiful. Then, we headed for another lake.
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McGown Lake
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Because Trail Creek Lakes and Observation Peak are both side trips, when we arrived at McGown Lake, it was already 6 p.m. It is a very pretty lake and nobody there, so we thought about camping there, but the campsite had a burnt leaning tree that looked like it could fall on the campsite. After we discussed, we decided to climb 200 feet more to go to Sawtooth Lake.
I liked the decision. I really loved the Sawtooth lake. Very big lake!
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Sawtooth Lake
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Sawtooth Lake in the morning
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It is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. If I had to choose the favorite lake of this backpacking, Baron lake and Sawtooth lake. It was really lucky to spend by a favorite lake. The next day, the color was even more amazing. Sooooo blue. Azure blue.
For this Grand Sawtooth loop, we saw 40 lakes at least I remember now. Some are big with name, some are no names. I think this is the most lake filled backpacking course I have ever done. I love lakes so much. Also this loop includes a lot of mountains. Mountains are indeed sawtooth-ish. Priceless.
