Tuesday, August 23, 2011

River of No Return!

Its a lucky thing I did return from the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, because it was spectacular. 

We arrived in Boise and still not totally sure on exactly what our plan of action was we drove towards the Big Horn Crags section of the Frank Church.  The wilderness area by definition is accessed by trail only so it was a long drive around to the northern section to the crags trail head.  The views were nice though, passing by the Sawtooth Range

After a decent drive on twisty mountain roads we turned off the pavement and headed up.
(nice mail box right?)

After another hour and a half or so of dirt road we finally made it to the trailhead.  But we now actually had to make a decision.  We had essentially one goal, catch fish.  We knew the area would be gorgeous so the goal was simply catch trout.  It was already very late in the afternoon so we decided to hike in about 4 miles to a spring, where we would camp for the night.  The trail in was gorgeous and moderately strenuous.  It was just never flat! That combined with 9,000ft elevation can make things interesting at times. 




We decided the next morning to head for Heart Lake.  It was about another 3.5 miles in but Heart Lake was more or less centrally located so we could day hike to other lakes and fish.  Again the trail was gorgeous.  There was one lengthy climb we had negotiate.  I felt pretty fortunate since the difference in elevation from flag was only around 2,000 feet on average. 

The view at the top was pretty nice.


As we started our descent down the other side we got our first views of Heart Lake.

The trail going in from here wasn't too bad and we made good time.  It also always helps being able to see your destination!  And it didn't dissapoint.  I have found a new happy place...








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