Idaho Hiking

Published on 2026-03-20 by Michael Stanton

I parked in Eightmile Canyon, a little ways up from the Left Fork where there was room for a couple of cars by an unnamed fork coming in from the West. This was still below the parking lot for the lower Fins and well below the parking area for the upper Fins. I wore tennis shoes and had hiking poles.

The Fins were impressive! I took the climber's trail from the upper lot and got to touch the vertical walls, continuing up along them until reaching the road that goes to Howe Peak, where I ran into very deep snow. Trying to tag Howe Peak, I made it up to Peak 8169 on a USGS topo map, where I sat for lunch and officially gave up trying to navigate the nearly continuous snow cover the rest of the way to Howe Peak. Great views and weather, and here I got fired up to tag Jumpoff Peak which looked far away.

i descended, then followed the road up to the radio towers a bit east of Jumpoff Peak, then went up and down on the ridge over to the summit. Great to be here! I'd seen no one all day except for a guy in a 4WD vehicle down on the road while I walked under the Fins.

I followed the road back to the truck, then moved the truck down a bit to a flat area to camp for the night. A veggie-burger, mushrooms and curry dinner was my reward. It had been about 12 miles and 4200 feet up/down for the day.

Late at night a truck drove right by me. Why is there always someone trolling around at midnight on BLM roads?

In the morning I had several options for what to do. I decided to drive a few minutes over to the Lemhi Mountains and travel up Middle Canyon. I parked at about 5600 feet elevation and headed up, noting some bolts on the interesting limestone cliffs on the left. Then a journey of about 3 miles into the narrow canyon. Very interesting! Often I was surprised that I could keep going. There was a track, often faint, and my speed really slowed down in the upper section. Since I knew snow would prevent me reaching the ridge to climb Saddle Mountain, I wasn't motivated to spend the full day, so I stopped for a cigar in a little dwarven glade, ate something and headed back. The trip down through the canyon was much faster and easier than going up, maybe because I had a better view on the route to take.

Once again, all alone out here. Really nice! 6 miles round trip, with about 2000 feet up and down.