Grand Sawtooth Solar Eclipse Loop
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Our annual week-long backpacking trip happened to coincide with the solar eclipse as that was the only week my buddy and I could both get off work. We were a bit worried about crowds but ended up not having too many problems at all. We both flew into Boise on Sunday and drove down to Grandjean Sunday afternoon. Day 1 started hiking roughly 5 miles up Trail Creek Lakes around 6. Got into camp between 8 and 8:30 to the most crowded back country site I’d ever seen. But the views were great and the people we talked to were very nice.
Next morning we woke up early and continued hiking towards Sawtooth Lake. Arrived at Sawtooth lake about an hour before the eclipse and found a good spot to sit down, have a few snacks and get ready to enjoy the eclipse. There were many other people around but the views were spectacular. We chose a spot overlooking Sawtooth Lake and Mount Reagan.
After enjoying the eclipse we hit the trail again. The trail around Sawtooth lake was awesome; great views, clear trail, easy walking.
Once we got back below Sawtooth Lake and started heading down into the canyon on Pack trail the going became a lot more difficult. It was the heat of the day and the trail was not very well cleared so it required a lot of climbing over fallen logs and bushwhacking through underbrush. Easy to follow the trail but very time consuming. We ended up staying at an unmarked campsite along Baron Creek just below Baron Falls and saw a young bear 100 yards from our tent right before going to bed. Luckily it wasn’t interested in us and kept on walking the other way.
The next morning we started the climb up to Barron Lake; the falls were a site to see. The hike to Baron Lake, Upper Baron Lake and then back down to Alpine lake was one of the highlights of the trip. We had lunch at Alpine lake and caught a few small trout in the lake before moving on.
We spent the rest of the day hiking through the trees climbing to the Cramer lakes where we camped and spent the evening catching small trout and looking at the stars.
The next morning we started off by climbing to Cramer Pass which was steep but well worth the views. Definitely the coolest hike of the trip in our opinion.
After reaching the top of Cramer pass we descended into an area called The Temple, passed Hidden Lake and went on to Lake Vernon where we camped for the night and caught a decent trout.
The next morning we spent an easy day hiking to Lake Ingeborg where we reached the summit of a nearby peak and had a great day catching trout all afternoon.
The next morning we woke up with the plan to hike down to Elk Lake and camp for our final night. We ended up getting to Elk Lake around 11 a.m. so just decided to finish out the last day by doing ~20 miles and getting a cold beer and hot meal around a fire at the campground. Next morning we woke up and checked out the hot springs near Grandjean. Overall a great trip; one of our more relaxing where we were able to spend a lot of time fishing and just enjoying the scenery.
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