Alice – Toxaway Lakes Loop Hike
TLDR: This is an absolutely amazing must do hike, there are stop after stop draw dropping views with some of the best campsites you might ever stay at!
I just recently completed a hike through the Sawtooth Wilderness, specifically doing the Alice Toxaway Loop (https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7014206/alice-toxaway-loop). You can do the loop Clockwise or Counterclockwise, we chose to do the loop counterclockwise, which in retrospect we thought was the best decision possible for a couple reasons… First the hike seemed like a more manageable approach to the elevation over the course of the trip, Second the majority of the way we had great views (especially coming over the ridge and down to Twin and Alice Lakes, Third the sun was behind us or blocked most of the way.
Getting There…
This hike is located near Stanley, Idaho. We started our Journey to the Trail Head from Boise, ID. It was roughly a 3 hour drive to get to Stanley, which is pretty close to the TH… Actually the start of the hike is exactly 20.7 miles from Stanley, Idaho (Driving Directions from Stanley to the TH) which is an awesome town to visit, with some great food that we had at the Stanley Hotel. Then from Stanley on the way to the trailhead we found an awesome dispersed (Dry Camping) spot to spend the night, and we headed out first thing in the morning.
Un-Named Lake Overnight…
We started the the hike at the Tin Cup Trailhead (where we left our van, using an America the Beautiful Pass which every year we buy is a huge savings for us). The first stop along the way was at Farley Lake for a quick snack/lunch (43.981116, -114.930656). After which we were planning on going to Toxaway Lake to set up camp and spend our first night. Instead we found one of if not the best campsites we have ever stayed at. I mean it was amazing, we hung out in the sun on a beautiful spread of Granite, which had been warmed from the sun and was pretty amazing to be in after taking a dip in a swimming hole that was created by a small waterfall that fed into the inlet for this small unnamed lake we were at (43.969271, -114.954900). Weather was amazing and we spent the night at the Un-Named lake with no fly on the tent, enjoying the view of the beautiful mountains around us.
Edna Lake detour (kinda) and one of the best views I’ve seen lately…
We woke up well rested and relaxed after chilling the day before at the Un-Named lake spot. From there we hiked up to Toxaway Lake, encountering some pretty amazing mountain views and some okay views of Toxaway Lake. To get some better views of Toxaway Lake we took the Looping trail that heads from Toxaway Lake to Enda Lake to Edith Lake and back down to the Un-Named Lake where you can loop back to the Toxaway Lake start. But that wasn’t part of this trips plan (Spoiler: next time we do this, and there definitely will be a next time! We are planning on including this loop into our hike)… What we did do was drop our packs in some bushes and hike up till we caught an amazing view of Toxaway Lake and the surrounding mountains. This was definitely worth the short detour! From there we hiked back down to the trail and continued on and up to the Toxaway side of the pass where we had a beautiful brunch (No Mimosas or Bloody Marys were to be had, but the views were unbeatable) and spent about 30 to 45 minutes enjoying the views of the mountains, and valley that contained Toxaway Lake(Pass View Spot 1). From there we finished going over the pass and then spent an hour or so looking at the amazing views of Twin Lakes, the edge of Alice Lake and the surrounding mountains. We planned on spending 15-20 minutes here and about an hour and half later realized how much time had passed and spent 10 minutes more. This was one of the best views of the entire hike, so I highly recommend budgeting some time to spend up there (Pass View Spot 2).
Alice Lake Overnight…
This was also an amazing camp spot, there’s actually basically 3 spots in the same area, right over the ledge from where we camped on the edge of the lake there’s a spot for 2 tents. Also a very short walk from camp is another excellent spot to take a dip in the lake (Alice Lake Swim Spot near Camp). So after hiking down from the amazing view spot at the top of the pass and passing about 4 other okay to good camp spots we found this Gem (43.938546, -114.946736) This camp spot had an excellent view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. We couldn’t have been happier… welllllllll actually if it was a little less buggy at dusk that would have been awesome, but it was nothing that our tents bug netting couldn’t deal with. We just had to go into the tent once dusk started rolling around and the wind started dying down. Which reminds me of one bummer about this hike overall… No CampFires, Yes there was a ban due to fire hazards, but more overarching than the immediate ban, was the fact that no fires were allowed within a quarter mile of any of the lakes we stayed at. But considering this really easy to deal with restriction (I mean just don’t have a campfire!) this was still by far one of the best BackPacking trips I have done in this country!
The day out…
We woke up after sleeping in a bit, made a great breakfast and had some great coffee, then packed up camp and started heading back to our van. This was actually a pretty average day, but for some reason really seemed to drag on forever… the views were’nt especially great (maybe we had been overloading since we had been exposed to such insane beauty the whole route), it was very hot, which was compounded with the fact that this part of the hike had the most exposed sections we had encountered (including going up and over the pass). We finally reached Pettite Lake, which seemed to also stretch on forever, but once we dropped our packs back at the van, we were very happy to be able to walk a short stretch back to the lake and take one final dip. Petite lake was very warm on the shallow edges and was really refreshing where it got deeper.
In Reflection…
Once we were back in our Van and heading out back to civilization we talked about how amazing the trip was and were already finding ourselves planning our next trip back, which we are considering making a yearly event. Overall I would still say that this was still by far one of the best BackPacking trips I have done in this country and I can’t wait to go back! Hopefully you’ll be able to go back before it gets too discovered!
Incredible post!