Stanley, ID is my favorite place to go in the summer. The view of the Sawtooth wilderness is amazing and there are plenty of things to do. It is overshadowed by McCall, the very popular summer destination, but I just love small town Stanley with its surrounding area. There are plenty of things to do for everyone. A boat ride at Redfish lake, fishing in the Salmon river, horseback riding, water sports, backpacking to numerous mountain lakes, hiking and camping just to name a few.
It was my birthday this week and both of our daughters had the day off from work and were able to join us. We decided to take them to Sawtooth lake for an easy day hike. Even though they love to go camping and fishing they have never gone on a long hike before.
We got to Iron creek late in the afternoon and the first order of business is, of course, to put up a tent. Or spray insect repellent in Jennifer's case.
After putting up the tents we had to build a campfire so we can cook our dinner. We left fire building to Jennifer, our resident fire bug.
We had salmon, BBQ beans, and steamed broccoli and summer squash for dinner. And S'mores for dessert.
The next morning after breaking our camp we packed our day pack with water and lunch and we were ready to go into the wilderness.
First we had to fill out a wilderness permit. We had to answer questions like how many are in our group, our destination, and how many days.
Here we are at the the trail head ready to start our hike.
Taking a break before we ascend some steep hills.
The snow reminded me of the harsh winter we had. By this time of the year this small meadow is usually covered in wildflowers, but this year there was water from melting snow everywhere.
When there is snow you got to build a snowman. Rhiannon's very very small snowman.
After the meadow the trail was still under a lot of snow but we decided to give it a go. We are practically going cross country by this time, and doing our best to follow what we thought was the trail. We had only gone a little way when I heard a scream and I turned around to see the bottom half of Rhiannon's body was gone under the snow. She had stepped on the soft snow and fell into a hole between two fallen trees. After a little bit of crying, and when we were sure she didn't break any body part, we decided to call off the hiking.
Summer is still a way out in this part of the mountains. We ran into two young men who actually hiked to Alpine lake which is lower than Sawtooth lake that we were planning to go to. They said the whole lake is still covered in snow except one small patch of open water.
The biggest challenge of taking a photo of wild animals is that they make horrible models. But look at these two! They were being perfect models. On the top we have a tree squirrel and on the bottom a mountain goat.
