Day 42, September 23

Day 42, September 23 — A slice of Colorado

Locations: Sawtooth Range; Lost River Range

Miles driven: 219

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I woke up at 7:00 and left camp at 7:11. There was 30 minutes of rain that had fallen an hour ago. I couldn't tell if there would be color at sunrise or not as it was mostly cloudy, but I went over to Little Redfish Lake anyway. I shot from the shore which is actually part of a campground there. It wasn’t a spectacular sunrise, though there was at least some light on the peaks. The light didn’t last very long at all, though. I left here at 8:23 and headed south along Highway 75. I would plan to drive to Ketchum, then northeast over Trail Creek Pass which heads over to where I was at yesterday along the Lost River Range on Highway 93. I expected that this would be a great drive. But first, I wanted to check out two other lakes in the area to see what kind of scenery they offer.

I stopped in at Pettit Lake and walked around the shore taking a couple of snaps. I headed back out and continued on. To the south of the Pettit Lake area, the craggy mountains fade off and transition into hills. I drove to Alturas Lake, which isn't very scenic and I went as far as the end of a road a few miles back. I came back out and stopped at the Galena Overlook which provides an awesome panorama view of the Sawtooths and the valley below. I soaked in the view here for a bit and took a number more snaps. I fueled up in Ketchum, turned onto Trail Creek Road, passed through Sun Valley, and made my way up towards the pass.

Just on other side of Trail Creek Pass, there is a road to the north that is signed as Big Fall Creek Lake (FR 502). I took this road to see where it went and to see if I could get to the lake. I stopped to air down the tires for the first time on the trip and knew I’d be on dirt roads for most of the rest of the day. It didn’t take long before I felt right at home! The narrow road soon began to climb through the forest and turned into a rocky shelf road along a talus slope near tree line. Now this is what I’m talking about! It felt like I was driving in Colorado and I was in heaven! I climbed a short ridge from the end of the road just to see if the lake was visible, but it wasn’t. It looked pretty dry in the basin I was viewing, though I wasn’t sure if the lake was further up in the basin, or where exactly. I went back down the gulch and got back out to Trail Creek Road.

A couple miles down the road past the Big Fall Creek Lake turnoff, Kane Creek Road (FR 134) takes off to the south which I took to the trailhead at its terminus. On the way back out, there were a couple of moose that I shot for awhile. I then drove back into the Wildhorse Creek valley via the Copper Basin Road along Wildhorse Creek Road (FR 136) which is rather nice and one I'd love to revisit. There is a nice campground, Wildhorse Campground, near the end, three or four spaces of which were being occupied. After the campground, the road gets rougher and I went back in a little ways before coming to a muddy section that I didn’t want or need to check out further, so I turned around. I really wanted to check out the rest of the Copper Basin Road which comes out in Darlington, between Mackay and Arco, but I didn’t have time to drive it on this trip. This is the first destination I want to revisit when I come back to Idaho.

Out closer towards Highway 93, and one of the intersections I came to yesterday afternoon, I took the road signed for Howell Canyon, but it ended up leading to a private residence. What?! The road was marked with a BLM sign, so I’m not sure what happened. There were no other roads to turn onto, so I guess I don’t get to see the canyon! Oh well.

I then took Sage Creek Road to Dry Gulch and came out just north of Willow Creek Summit on Highway 93. This was a neat drive through rolling hills that were enhanced even more by the warm late afternoon light. I stopped once to get out the tripod, but other than that I just got a bunch of snapshots. I wish I would’ve stopped for a few more shots, but my main intent was to get back around to shoot Mt. Borah at virtually the same spot where I started along Sage Creek.

I went over Willow Creek Summit and back along Sage Creek Road a few miles off the highway and shot a productive sunset. There was an awesome cloud overhead, but unfortunately, I ended up losing the tail end of my pictures from this day due to a portable hard drive failure. I missed all of the main event as well as my pictures I would take tomorrow morning. The sunset wasn't overly intense, but still quite nice.

I left Sage Creek Road around 7:30 and headed over to the other side of the highway and up the road to Doublesprings Pass where I would camp and plan to shoot sunrise tomorrow. Once there, I aired the tires back up and cooked some tortellini. There was lightning to the southwest from a cloud bank which I also shot at sunset. The clouds were breaking up overhead and the stars came out. It was a rather cold evening atop this 8,318-foot pass. Around 11:00, it rained pretty hard for about 15 minutes, but not sure if it lasted any longer than that as I may have fallen back to sleep.

Tomorrow, I would plan to head south, and over to the Jackson Wyoming area and possibly down to Sweetwater Gap for sunset in the Wind Rivers.

7:43 AM — Sunrise on the Sawtooths from Little Redfish Lake