Backpacking in Trinity Lakes provides quick access to six lakes basin close to home

Wendy is happy to be in the mountains 

Big Lookout Lake 

Relaxing on big granite rocks on the shore of Big Lookout Lake 

Heart Lake 

Big Rainbow Lake 

My new pack ... much lighter than the old Kelty! 

Wendy hikes toward the top of the pass 

Hi all,

After spending quite a bit of time on the river this summer, I had a strong itch to go backpacking last weekend. I wanted to go somewhere relatively close by, as both Wendy and I had work stuff going on through Friday afternoon, but we still wanted to get out of town Friday night. We decided to head for the Trinity Lakes, a sweet lakes basin under the shadow of towering Trinity Mountain Lookout (elevation 9,451 feet).

We figured that the Trinities would probably be relatively clear of smoke, being well south and west of the leading edge of the Pioneer Fire. And that turned out to be true!

It'd been 20 years since I've been up to the Trinities, quite honestly, and I forgot how long it takes to get there, even if you go through Prairie, the most direct route via 3 hours of dirt roads. Wendy and I took Black's Creek Road to Prairie on Friday evening, and enjoyed the scenic drive along the South Fork of the Boise River. It was about 8 p.m. as we pulled into Prairie, and I figured we'd better look for a campsite somewhere along the forest road because we had some lamb steaks to BBQ. We were still an hour from the Trinities, and it'd be dark by then. We spied a nice outhouse by the Prairie Airstrip and car-camped by a picnic bench on the end of the airfield.

Our campsite on the Prairie Airfield 

We drove east to the Fall Creek Road the next morning and scaled a steep dirt road to Big Trinity Lake, the trailhead. The dirt road becomes a steep and gnarly 4WD road for the last couple of miles. I was wishing I'd taken my Ford F-250 instead of my Honda Pilot as I slowed rolled over razor-sharp rocks in the final ascent into the Trinity Lakes area, holding my breath all the way. Even so, it's rare to be able to drive to a trailhead at 8,200 feet, which of course, puts you in prime position to access the lakes basin without that much climbing.

There are a number of super-cool car-camping spots around Big Trinity Lake for future reference. The trailhead to the Trinity Lakes is on the east side of the lake, even though the topo map shows it on the west side. Not true!

Our plan was to scale the pass on the well-worn singletrack trail and decide which lakes to visit after we got a closer view. It's about 1 mile from the trailhead to the top of the pass, gaining about 500 feet. From that perch, Green Island Lake looked swampy and poor for fishing. We decided to head into Big Lookout Lake and make a base camp there. It's about 2.5 miles total to Big Lookout from the trailhead. The lake was crystal clear, and nice and deep for fishing and swimming. There were several campsites around the edge of the lake, and that's a good thing because most of them were full.

Topo map for Trinity Lakes area (click to enlarge)
Take a Boise National Forest map with you
for road navigation.

Wendy liked the quick access. "The Trinities are my new favorite place for a short hike into a whole basin of lakes, there's nothing quite like it," she said.

We've taken our kids to Josephine Lake and Snowslide Lake in McCall, and they're short hikes, but they don't take you into a whole basin of lakes like the Trinities. There are eight high mountain lakes named on the map, but truthfully, several of them are ponds, like Little Lookout Lake.

I brought my fly rod and spin cast set up to fish for trout, and that was fun. I caught a nice cutthroat in Big Lookout Lake, and some smaller fish, but the fish seemed finicky. I could see that a float tube would be "the kind" to really slay the fish up there to access the deep spots in the middle of the large lakes.

Wendy and I toured Heart Lake and Big Rainbow Lake Sunday morning before we hiked out to the trailhead. Those lakes were only a mile or so from Big Lookout, but they were both very big and beautiful. I could see base camping at either one of them.

I must mention how cool it was to see two dad-and-daughter pairs camping at Big Lookout Lake. One of the dads hauled his 2 1/2-year-old daughter up to that lake, carrying a backpack with his sleeping bag and hers, a tent, their food and clothes, etc. He told us that he had to carry his daughter most of the way to the lake ... all while carrying a 45-pound pack. That's devotion! It's nice to see young people out backpacking and camping in spite of what we hear -- that our children don't want to venture into the outdoors anymore.

On our drive home, we took Forest Road #172 to Featherville (much smoother road) and took mostly paved roads back to Boise. It's still about 3 hours going that direction, but much easier on your vehicle. Plus, you can stop at the restaurant in Pine and get a milk shake!

As we move into September, I would expect that the number of people flocking to the Trinities will dissipate. And there's plenty of nice weather left for backpacking!
- SS

Backcountry 4WD roads provide great access to Central Idaho spectacular high country

Loon Creek, clean and pure

View looking down Loon Creek from our campsite

Grouse Creek open-pit gold mine ... never got very far

Black bear feeding on berries in the creek bottom

Near Loon Creek Summit. The General is on the left.

Small rainbow amid black sky

Crater Lake, just 1,500 verts downhill from Railroad Ridge

Wendy loved all of the flowers, as did I

I love my truck!

The road to Railroad Ridge was definitely a 4WD low-range type of road

My partner Wendy had knee surgery recently, so we decided to take a different approach to accessing the high mountains of Central Idaho -- we took the truck to the top.

Normally, we'd be backpacking into the high country at this time of year, but Wendy's physical therapist would have given her hell if she tried to put in 15+ miles on a rugged backcountry trail with a full-on backpack.

So we packed up my 1990 Ford F-150 4WD, which has traveled many super-gnarly rock-strewn roads in Owyhee County, and headed out for Railroad Ridge in the White Cloud Mountains. We also planned to drive a twisty single-lane 4WD road from Yankee Fork into the headwaters of Loon Creek, if we had time, over a three-day weekend.

Why go? We yearned to see mountain wildflowers at their peak, fly fish for trout, and camp in the high country, where it's nice and cool, even in August. Most of all, we needed to get out of town and get a change of scenery!

Idaho has a great roster of backcountry byways. Those routes typically include excellent access to food, lodging and services. More primitive trips like the two I'm going to describe here are just that, primitive. You're traveling into the backcountry where there are zero services. It's a pack-in, pack-out situation. We brought 10 gallons of water, our camp cook stuff, food, fishing stuff, tent and sleeping bags, etc.

Railroad Ridge. We left on a Thursday night after work, camped in a meadow near Stanley, and headed up to Railroad Ridge on the east slope of the White Clouds the next morning. It's such a long drive to the trailhead (4 hours) that it's great to do part of it the night before.

Getting there: Take Idaho 21 to Stanley, and Idaho 75 past Yankee Fork and Clayton to the turnoff for the East Fork of the Salmon River Road. Head up the paved East Fork Road about 10 miles to Big Boulder Road #667. Go right on #667 and proceed to the Livingston Mill. A Forest Service sign indicates the turnoff for the more primitive single-lane 4WD road to Railroad Ridge. You, no, the truck, must climb from 7,200 feet to elevation 10,600 feet, 3,400 feet of gain over just a few miles of steep road.

The 4WD road to Railroad Ridge is very narrow with almost zero pullouts. I just put it in 4WD low-range and cruised up the road at a slow speed, careful to not pop the tires on sharp rocks and slowly navigate big water dips and large boulders. It took us, no, the truck, less than an hour of climbing and we were cruising up the backbone of Railroad Ridge, which was absolutely smothered with multiple layers and colors of wildflowers. We hit it at the peak! Sweet!

Perched at 10,600 feet, it was so cool to look at eye level with 10,000-foot peaks in the Sawtooths to the west, and the Frank Church Wilderness to the north, while the higher Lost River Range and Lemhi Mountains lorded over the eastern side of the state.

I hiked down to Crater Lake to fly fish, just in time for a thunderstorm to hit and lightning bolts to land around the edges of the lake. We had a great evening watching a storm hammer the Lemhi's and the Borah Peak area, and then we pitched the tent because the storm ended up hitting us pretty squarely by 10ish. Our REI river tent fared pretty well on that windy ridge ... should have brought the NorthFace VE-25, but it was August!

It was clear as a bell the next morning. Wendy saw 40 head of elk on Railroad Ridge to the east, and spotted a lone mountain goat on a peak nearby. Very few birds were visible in the area except for a few red-tailed hawks.

Yankee Fork to Loon Creek: On Saturday morning, we noted the storm clouds gathering quickly in the White Clouds again, so we headed for the Loon Creek Trailhead, 25 miles from Bonanza, up the Yankee Fork Road.

Getting there: We were already in the 'hood. We took ID 75 to the Yankee Fork road, drove north on Yankee Fork to the dredge, turned left on the Jordan Creek-Loon Creek Road #172, and cruised over a tall summit to the Loon Creek trailhead, just past the Diamond D Ranch.

We got there in the early afternoon. I didn't waste any time getting my fly rod set up to fish the turquoise stream. Last time I was there, photographer Mark Lisk and I hammered the cutthroat trout with Dave's Hoppers in 90-degree heat. This time around, the fish were more choosy, but I still had some action.

There is a nice hot springs about 4 miles up the Loon Creek Trail, but Wendy couldn't quite hike that far (8+ miles round-trip), so we pulled over after a while and hung out at a deep pool, taking a swim every so often to cool off (after I was done fishing, of course).

If one were nuts about backcountry roads and could take the bumpy ride for hours on end, we could have driven to the top of Pinyon Peak (9,942 feet), a remote Forest Service fire lookout on the edge of the Frank Church Wilderness. That lookout is accessible from the Loon Creek Road or from the Beaver Creek road system, north of Cape Horn.

On our way back, we stopped at the top of Loon Creek Summit, and hiked out the shoulder of a mountain to the west and had a great view of the General, a big 10,000-foot peak, and the old Grouse Creek open-pit gold mine, not to mention all of the other mountains in Central Idaho.

We were a bit dizzy from all the twisty road by the time we got back to the paved Idaho 21, but we had covered a lot of country and taken lots of great photos. We figured the trip was good practice for when our knees or hips are worn out in our late 70s or 80s. :)
- SS