Born Lakes

We recently visited the Born Lakes, which are in the White Cloud Range of Idaho. This was my wife Tuckie’s first backpack in a while, so we trained by walking a 6 mile loop, 3 times a week. That helped a lot, but the altitude still made it a struggle. I wanted to get in the altitude experience, as training for the upcoming 6 day backpack to the Wind River Range in Wyoming.

We drove to the 4th of July Trailhead, via 4th of July Creek, located about 15 miles east of Stanley. The road in was about 20 miles on a decent dirt road. There were more cars at the trailhead than I had ever seen there, so we feared the lakes would be crowded. It was a Friday, and we had spent the night at the trailhead, hoping to give us an easy day and also beat the crowds to the lake. From there we started hiking, and reached 4th of July Lake in about 1.25 miles.

Just before reaching 4th of July Lake, the trail split, with one trail going left to Ant’s Basin, where the Born Lakes are located. The right fork went a short distance to 4th of July Lake.

After a short but tiring climb to 9600’, we gained the ridge looking down into the Ants Basin and Born Lakes. We headed down a steep trail with loose rocks, for some 300’. We got to the first large lake, and found no one there. We had our choice of campsites, and picked one to wait for our friends the Litsters to arrive. A few hours later, having driven from Boise the same say, they arrived. Both the gals thought it was a pretty tough hike, at 6 miles and with the rocky trail.

The next morning Dave and I headed up to visit the upper Born Lakes, and found plenty of campsites along the way. Below is the next higher lake.

We saw plenty of Elephant heads (Pedicularis groenlandia) in the meadowy areas. These little flowers are made of many tiny flowers that really to look like small elephant heads.

Below is our group at our campsite, relaxing by swatting mosquitoes. We got an early start on the 3rd day of our trip, hoping to hit the steep part in the early part of the day. The return trip went easier than the trip in, and we were at the car in no time.