Bench Lakes, Sawtooth, Idaho
Total Mileage: 12-15 mile(half of the hike is off-trail)
Total elevation gain: 3,000 feet? (a lot of off-trail, I am not sure)
Scenery: 9
Solitude: 9
Difficulty: 8
Our
itinerary: 1 night 2 days
Day1: Hike through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, then camp at 5th Bench Lake
Day2: Hike Out
There are five bench lakes in Sawtooth. Let's do it all.
There is an official trail to the first bench lake from Redfish lake. Redfish lake is a pretty big lake and commercial boat service is run from one side to the other. On the day we hiked, obviously there was no boat service. Why were we sure about it? The reason was Ross Fork fire. It was not very close, but close enough to see smoke. In the middle of our Idaho hiking trip in Sawtooth, the Ross Fork fire started, and by the time we were hiking to Bench Lakes, it got bigger. We observed that two fire department planes were getting water from Redfish lake and headed for the fire every 15 minutes. It was really cool to see the plane touched the lake and went up to the sky again. The time for the planes to be on the lake was just 10 seconds. It was impressive that it is possible to collect water in such short time. I was able to take pictures of those moments.
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| getting water |
Another great moment along Redfish lake was that we ran into an Idahoan couple we met at the top of Thompson peak on a previous day. They day hiked to Thompson and the next day they went to Bench lakes. We stayed at the lake overnight, and hiked out in the morning and started hiking toward Bench Lakes in the afternoon. When we were heading to Bench lakes they were on the way back from Bench lakes. It was a great meeting. They are very friendly, talkative, and nice.
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| 3rd Bench Lake |
Among five Bench lakes, I liked 4th and 5th. Further hiked, the lake got more alpine-ish, and it was completely nobody after 4th. The left picture is the 3rd Bench Lake. Water was really clear and transparent blue. So peaceful. Mr.N went into lake as usual. I had snack and took pictures while his diving time as usual.
4th to 5th Bench Lake was a little tricky, since it was off-trail. There was a used trail from the edge of 3rd lake to the 4th, but to find it we had to do some bush-whacking.
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| 5th Bench Lake |
5th Bench Lake was incredible. Nobody else, and we could get an awesome campsite along the lake. As you can see in the left picture, another great iconic sawtooth shaped mountains are standing tall behind the lake. Not many people reach the 5th lake, which made me feel the place really a hidden gem.
We hiked so much in Sawtooth and absolutely loved Sawtooth mountains.
