Aug
1999
The Sawtooths
Posted by Carl Hutzler
David and Brad grew up in Idaho, home of the Sawtooth mountain range. So in 1999 we decided to venture up north to the great land of the “pointy peaks”.
We left on our usual Monday departure for Idaho. It was a long drive of maybe 8 hours or so on I-15 up through the valley with the Wasatch off to the east. Then we headed west on I-84 towards Twin Falls, ID and then north on route 75 on to our destination near Stanley, Idaho. We would make our way to a small campground near Stanley called Iron Creek campground which would be our trail head the next day.
On Tuesday we began our hike on a cloudy and drizzly morning. The rain was not a huge problem and eventually gave way to some sun and clouds as we made our way along a winding trail towards Goat Falls. The climb was not too bad and the trail was in the shade of a nice pine forest…all in all, a very nice walk. But then we got to the falls itself. The trail became very steep and not as much of a trail. In fact, it was more of a large vertical sandbox. Two steps forward, one step back. And the falls were in the direct sun. With increasing sand in my shoes, I remember being hot and wondering when the climb would be over. After maybe 800 feet of vertical we finally got to the top of Goat Falls. We stopped for a little lunch and a nice cool washing of our feet in the 35° water. It felt good to get all that sand and sweat out of our boots.