I was in charge of planning the high adventure for the priest quorum this year. Jack and I decided to hike in the Bighorn Crags, in the Frank Church River of No Return wilderness, in central Idaho. None of the kids wanted to go. So we decided to go ourselves (Me, Jann, Jack). We also took John Thomas, since he liked the Glacier hike three years ago so well.
Starting off at the Crags campground, after three hours on a dirt road!
The Crags are all granite, and much of the trail was sandy with decomposed granite.
Small fires, off to the north.
John, after solving a boulder problem.
Starting to see crags.
Jack, risking his life.
Headed over yet another saddle.
Toots and her one hiking stick.
We camped at Birdbill Lake, after about nine miles.
The brushing of the teeth.
Morning, on the sitting rock. The wind kept the bugs off, though they were not too bad.
John, fetching water.
Next day, we day hiked to Ship Island Lake. Mom forgot a day pack, so she kept her water in an improvised butt pack.
South end of Ship Island, looking towards the gorge that leads down to the Salmon River.
We had to bushwhack some to get to our observation rock at the end of the lake.
It was a bit of a scramble, up bare rock.
The view from this rock was spectacular. The gorge plummeting to the Salmon looks like the end of the earth. You kind of had to be there.
Crags.
Jack erected a monolith on the way back.
Toots accidentally took a photo of me, so there'd be one.
Fish Fin Ridge, above Birdbill.
Trail blasted through solid rock.
And holy hell, these two little trees were blown down in a microburst, and almost hit us as we were headed home. We had to move three trees off the road to get home. Good thing they were all of manageable size.
It was a beautiful hike. But a total of six hours on dirt roads makes it quite a trip.
