When we were planning our hikes for the Stanley area, we kept coming across posts that said if we only had time to hike to one alpine lake, make it Goat Lake. It certainly appeared to be a magnificent looking lake, but the distance, elevation gain and off trail navigation made us a bit neervous. After tossing it around, we finally decided to "go for it!" As our friend, Tom, often says, "Sometimes the best experiences come when you push a little outside your comfort zone."
Oh, so true, Tom!
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| As we left Stanley we were engulfed in a valley of fog . . . We had our doubts as to whether we'd have any views on this hike and were a little discouraged |
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| 30 minutes later, Kent was filling out our wilderness permit and standing in sunshine . . . It's amazing how much difference getting out of the valley and gaining 500 ft could make! |
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| About a mile into the hike (and just after we crossed the wilderness boundary) we came to this intersection . . . We have just come from the Iron Creek Trailhead and are heading on the Alpine Loop towards Marshall Lake |
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| Shortly after the intersection we crossed Iron Creek on a log . . . If we had stayed on the main trail we would have continued on to the popular Sawtooth Lake . . . It is located just on the other side of the pass between these two peaks |
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| The trail meandered along for awhile before quickly gaining 600 ft on these switchbacks . . . You've got to love a well constructed trail! |
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| At the top of the switchbacks we walked another, mostly level, mile that led us into another basin . . . Goat Lake is located a 1,000 ft higher, somewhere above that dead tree in front of Kent (That's Thompson Peak [10,751 ft] just left of center . . . the highest peak in the Sawtooth's) |
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| It was here that the fun began! For the next 1.5 miles we were off trail . . . The adventure begins by finding a way up this granite shelf . . . Even though it initially looked very imposing, it was fairly easy to find a good route |
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| Above the granite shelf the "trail" turned into a scramble through lots of scree . . . We just stayed high and kept that cliff to our right |
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| Soon we came to Goat Falls . . . Idaho's tallest waterfall at 650 ft The path leads between the cliff (from the previous picture) and the Falls |
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| Above the Falls we entered this boulder field and the route became a little more sketchy . . . With another couples help we determined the best way to go was to stick closer to the trees by the stream (Hint: If in doubt, always keep the stream to your left and stay as close as possible to it) |
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| Soon after crossing this stream a well defined social trail emerged and lead us right to the lake (Remember this stream is coming from the lake) |
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| Goat Lake |
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| Goat Lake's water color is amazing! Words can't describe it, so we'll let the picture show it! |
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| Mr. Chipmunk |
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| Looks like we have our Christmas picture! |
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| Heading down we were able to look into the White Cloud wilderness area . . . That snow is from the same storm that engulfed us on Thursday when we hiked Horton Peak |
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| Coming down from Goat Lake was easier than we expected . . . It's amazing how things made more sense than they did on the way up! |
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| Which budged first? The boulder or the tree |
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| Back on the first set of switchbacks and making our way into the Sawtooth Lake basin |
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| Crossing Iron Creek, on the log, one more time before making the final mile push to the trailhead |
When we began planning this hike we were surprised by how much variation there was in the stats posted online. Some showed the r/t mileage as 6 miles while others said 8 miles. All we can do is add to the confusion! For us it ended up being 9.6 miles, with 2,000 ft elevation gain and took us approximately 6 hours to complete. (For the post we felt best described this hike you can click here for a link to 33ANDFREE's description.) This hike came close to pushing us over our limits, but if we had the chance to do it again . . . we would. What a gorgeous hike, lake and day!
