Elephant's Perch

Location: Sawtooth National Forrest, ID
Date: June, 2010
Expedition Members: Barak Watson, Sam Rust, Daniel Patchin
Goal: Summit the Elephant's Perch

This is typically an easy trip. A well marked trail leads to the lake at the base of Elephant's Perch, and there is a non technical route of the backside of the Perch that allows you to summit without making the strenuous rock climb up the face.

Although we did the easy route up the backside of Elephant's Perch we did not follow the well marked trail to get into the lake.  We instead hiked a drainage that looked inviting and once again, this method of getting of the beaten trail made our trip all the more enjoyable.

After crossing creek that was overflowing due to the early snow melt we began our ascent of the steep drainage.  There was still deep snow in parts of the drainage which made the hike more interesting and in parts much more difficult.  We got to the lake however without incident, except for one 10 ft drop that Sam slid off but fortunately without injury.

We gave ourselves a day of exploring the area before making the climb on the following day. The area around Elephant's Perch is truly remarkable, especially with spring runoff contributing to the many waterfalls.

We made the climb the next morning as planned. Climbing up the backside was made difficult only by the snow which made the normally sturdy rock into a slippery slide right over the edge if a foot was misplaced.

The views were incredible from the top as can be expected. The Sawtooths are beautiful country and we were thankful to be able to experience them in such a way.

We chose to follow the typical route out and made it back in less than 3 hours as opposed to hour original 8 that it took getting in.


All photo cred's go to the talented Daniel Patchin, you can see more of his amazing work here.