On a nice crisp fall morning, Craig, Anne, Tom, Ruby, Dakota and I headed to the South Fork of the Salmon River to climb Miner’s Peak. John and I did this hike back in 2021 but it was in the spring. Check out the difference when done in the fall here. From our parking spot, you can just make out the lookout on top. I heard Tom mumbling something about being up there is a few minutes as it looks pretty close. Truth is, it looks much closer than it is requiring a 5 mile, 4000 foot climb.
This time of year, the river is low and the vegetation is in it’s fall colors.
As we work our way up the mountain, views start coming in and the Tamaracks are turning color.
We take a break, Tom enlightens us on the benefits of bringing hot fluids.
Eventually we started hitting the high altitude snow and Ruby was in heaven! This girl loves the snow!
We had been climbing for a couple hours and finally turned a corner to get out first close glimpse of the Miner’s Peak Lookout.
All day long the skies were threatening but thankfully the weather held off.
Our final approach to the summit. Notice the lightening rod on the roof? I’ll bet things get rocking here during a storm. These lookouts are wrapped in wire and metal to form essentially a Faraday Cage.
I scurried up to the observation deck becouse I wanted to shoot our crew finishing the climb. I only managed to get Craig probably becouse he stopped for a potty break…… notice the outhouse down below?
Amazing views from the lookout’s observation deck.
Amazing in every direction!
After a short debate about whether the leward wind side or the sunny side would be better for lunch, we sat and enjoyed our lunch, sunny side. Dakota is always available to help with lunch!
Confirmation that we did indeed climb the right peak.
Time for the decent.
We had not noticed this alien obelisk earlier. Weird!!!!
One final image of the fall colors. Miner’s peak is an amazing climb!
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