[trailmo]

After a friends fun birthday weekend in Twisp I headed out for Stanley to start my fall vacation. Originally I had planned on a 7 day loop but it got shortened to 6 days as I rolled into the last camp before 2 and there were unfortunately quite a few people around so I bailed for ribs and a beer in town. Overall stats: 6 days, about 66 miles, about 18,550 gain and loss. Here's a link to the route I took Route map Day 1: 5 miles, 1400 gain, 600 loss. Rolled into Tin Cup Trailhead around 3 and after taping my big toenail into it's approximate previous location, headed up the trail to Farley Lake, I was making pathetically slow progress and wondering if it was the sudden elevation change or the fact I'd spent a day and a half in my car working on a party size bag of jalapeño chips... Pleasant camp above the lake with one other party. There was a good rockslide off a peak on the other side of the lake for dinner entertainment.

Parks Peak

Day 2: 17 miles, 4000 gain, 5300 loss. Hiked from Farley up and over to Imogene and Hell Roaring Lakes then up and over to Redfish Lake on a trail that apparently doesn't get much travel and was quite the slog-fest, didn't see anyone past Hell Roaring Lake until the next morning. Stayed at the campground all by myself at Redfish Lake, the $6 was worth it for the picnic table and bathroom, felt very luxurious!

Edith Lake

Looking back towards Edith and Farley Lakes

First peek of Imogene

Imogene

Imogene pano

Outlet at Hell Roaring Lake

Sawtooth Valley and the White Clouds

Day 3: 8.75 miles, 4850 gain, 3000 loss. Hiked from Redfish Lake up to Alpine Lake then up and over to Upper and Lower Baron Lakes, one of my favorite areas of the trip. Met some nice folks from Boston/Ireland at the pass above the Baron Lakes who kindly gave me a shot of whiskey Had a beautiful but windy and slightly smokey camp on the strip of land between the upper and lower lakes. Had the upper lake all to myself.

Heading up Redfish Lake Creek

Alpine Lake

Baron pass

Upper Baron

Smokey camp at Upper Baron Lake

Last light and Lower Baron Lake

View for pudding time

Day 4: 11.5 miles, 4000 gain, 3900 loss. Up from Upper Baron Lake down past Alpine Lake again then up the Redfish Lake Creek up to Cramer Lakes then over the Cramer Divide down to another private lake camp at Hidden Lake. Hiking up into the Cramer Divide was really awesome, I felt like Frodo heading up Mount Doom. After the Cramer Lakes area Hidden Lake was a bit boring but it was nice and quiet except for the fish that kept jumping and taunting me for not bringing my pole.

Elephant Perch

Middle Cramer Lake

Upper Cramer Lake

Looking back at Upper Cramer

Mount Cramer

Hidden Lake

Day 5: 7.75 miles, 2000 gain, 2200 loss. Had a nice easy day from Hidden Lake to Vernon Lake. After setting up camp went up to Lake 8866 and scrambled up into the Tenlake Basin. A bit tricky to get up there with lots of cliffing out, missed my route on the way out and ended up, (after apologizing to my boss and partner as I had told them "of course I won't do anything risky where I won't be easily found") scrambling/down climbing a big slab system that was a little sketchy. Saw a few people wander by my camp in the afternoon but had the lake to myself again.

Chilly morning ice on Hidden Lake

Smokey morning

Edna Lake

Vernon Lake

Lake 8866

Ardeth Lake

Tenlake Basin

Tenlake Basin

Tenlake Basin

Not the recommended route

Lake 8866

Lake 8866

Smoke starting to creep my way

Day 6: 16 miles, 2300 gain, 3700 loss. Hiked from Vernon Lake up and over to Toxaway Lake then up and over to Twin and Alice Lakes. Was going to scramble Snowyside but couldn't see a route that didn't look like it presented serious problems, apparently the large cracks that you see from the pass above Twin Lakes are really easy when you get there they just look bad. Something to do for the next time I get down there! Rolled into Alice Lake before 2 to strong winds, out of gummy bears, and there were more people than I was now used to or wanted to share the lake with (maybe 10... I had become quite the lake snob by then) and so I decided to head back out a day early for some barbecue.

Sand Mountain Pass

Toxaway Lake

Toxaway Lake

Toxaway Lake

Small tarn above Toxaway

from Pass between Toxaway and Twin Lakes

Pano from the pass

Pano from the pass

Twin Lakes

Fall colors starting to show

Alice Lake

Alice Lake pano with El Capitan

El Capitan

El Capitan

Sawtooth Valley

Back side of Parks Peak

All in all an excellent trip, amazing scenery, lucked out on the weather with sun every day, the only thing I regret is not packing a fishing pole, they were jumping like crazy every night! As I pulled out of the trailhead I started planning my next trip and my back brakes started to make horrible noises, luckily there's a nice shop in Ketchum that fit me in the next day and I got a good excuse to stay in the valley a little longer and catch up with a friend in Boise.

[kenbee]

Nice! Looks like another place I'm going to have check out at some point. I like your thinking as well: Too many people around? Bail for ribs and beer!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Excellent! The Sawtooths are great. I've done the Toxaway/Pettit loop and Baron Lakes in-and-out via Redfish Lake (with a water shuttle from the lodge). Looks like a really nice loop that included both of those plus quite a bit more.

[awilsondc]

Nice loop! That's some serious lake bagging! I earned my chops in the Sawtooth range in my early 20's. I miss that place. Thanks for the memories!

[JimK]

Great trip report! You hit many of my favorite places. I've done most of your route but not the Hell Roaring Lake to Redfish Lake section. Two of my favorite spots are Cramer Divide and Ten Lakes Basin. Ten Lakes is well worth a day of exploring alone. Glen's Peak above is not a difficult scramble. There is a pretty easy way off the ridge down to Ten Lake Basin though it is easy to get into much harder terrain. You bring back a lot of good memories. Here is one of my shots of Ten Lakes Basin.

[Snowdog]

Love love love the Sawtooths- thanks for sharing.

[call-151]

Enjoyed the report and following along on the map. Thanks for posting!

[wildernessed]

Very Nice ! I was looking at a loop in there earlier this year with a trip up Sunnyside Peak with my daughter but the scheduling didn't work out.

[Treehugger5]

Fantastic trip! Great pictures. I have a friend visiting from New Jersey in two weeks, I have a Montana trip scheduled but in case the weather is iffy I'm looking at alternatives. Is there a shorter version of this loop you could recommend? ( We only have Tues -including drive time- through Friday--again, driving day).

[Distel32]

[trailmo]

[trailmo]

Treehugger, this was actually my first time in the Sawtooths so I'm not sure I'm the best for trip recommendations. All kind of depends on how much mileage/gain you want to do, I probably could've gotten this done in less time but I enjoyed my reading by the lake time. Just taking a peek at the map maybe you could go in Grandjean, up to Ardeth Lake, loop up past Edna Lake to the Cramer Divide, then head back out to Grandjean via Alpine/Baron Lakes, I met a group doing that trip plus adding the loop to Sawtooth Lake. There are fun little side trips you could take to other lakes/scrambles along that route as well.

[hooker]

Love It!

[Backpacker Joe]

Ive looked at your map, but I cant seem to figure it out. Can you give me a "basic" route to the trail head from Washington State. Wonderful trip by the way.

[trailmo]

Hey Joe, I drove from around Twisp down but I'm assuming the route would work from most places in WA. From Twisp: Hwy 20 to Hwy 97 to Hwy 17 through Bridgeport to 174 through Grand Coulee. Then hooked up with Hwy 2 to Hwy 23 then 95 down through Pullman and Lewiston, stayed on 95 until New Meadows, ID then took Hwy 55 to Banks then Hwy 21 to Stanley then south on Hwy 75 to the Tin Cup TH. I took the "scenic route" because I wanted to camp along the way and not just sleep in my car at a truck stop. There's a faster but longer route taking 395 south through the Tri-Cities then hitting I-84 outside of Hermiston then cutting over north of Boise to hit Hwy 21. Here's a link to my route (in blue). https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Twisp,+WA/Tin+Cup+Trailhead,+Forest+Road+362,+Ketchum,+ID/@46.1392914,-115.2649362,6.75z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x549ca3fbd4c1dde1:0x219a0a91c68c3447!2m2!1d-120.122303!2d48.3634784!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a90315cd352b3b:0x3778e9347d76b308!2m2!1d-114.8715522!2d43.9843162!5i1