Sawtooth Lake

If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Sawtooth Lake was not unlike Big Pine Lakes or Sky Pond: they are all frozen alpine lakes. The view on the way up was nice though. The trail looked down on another lake surrounded by towering mountains and cliffs. That's where I met a girl from northern Cal, now living in Grand Junction. She was thrilled with the view that she has never seen before. She obviously didn't hike much in California. Or in Colorado for that matter. Had she done that, she would've recognized the similarities.

After the Alice Lake Loop, I spent a day mostly resting at the campsite by Iron Creek. In the morning I went up Iron Creek to check out the trailhead and use the bathroom. There were much nicer campsites along the way. The site I took was tiny, not big enough for the car and the tent. I had to chop a sapling to secure enough space to pitch the tent. The ones I found further up Iron Creek were huge, shaded and flat. On the way back, I parked in one and napped for a while. Then I went to Stanley RV to get my car charged up. I was going to Idaho Falls in 2 days and that was good for 200 miles.

The hike to and from Sawtooth Lake was about 10 miles. I was in a terrific condition after a day of rest. I started out around 9AM and I was back at the trailhead before 3PM.  I didn't spend much time at the lake. It wasn't much different from other alpine lakes, and you couldn't walk around the lake either. You could go about a hundred yards on each direction, but there was no trail that circled the lake.

The campsite that I napped in the day before was taken. I came back to my tent, parked my car in the shade nearby and rolled around in the car till the evening.