OCTOBER 2016 & OCTOBER 2020
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| GOAT LAKE |
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| VIEW ALONG THE TRAIL |
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| TRAIL TO GOAT LAKE |
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| VIEW ALONG THE TRAIL |
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| WATERFALL |
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| VIEW ALONG THE TRAIL |
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| GOAT LAKE |
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GOAT LAKE FROM ABOVE
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LAKE ABOVE GOAT LAKE
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Goat Lake is a beautiful 7 mile round-trip hike in the Sawtooth Mountains accessed from the Iron Creek Trailhead. While the Iron Creek Trail receives a lot of traffic from people heading to and from Sawtooth Lake, the Goat Lake Trail, which breaks off of from the main trail after about a mile, is much quieter. I first discovered Goat Lake while living in Salt Lake and playing around on Google Earth, looking for possible hikes in the Sawtooth Mountains. For some reason, a photo of Goat Lake was the image of the Sawtooth that impressed me the most, so I added it to my to-do list. It remained on my list for years, until I eventually moved to Boise and had a free Sunday afternoon to kill.
Goat Lake did not disappoint. I was impressed the amount of green I saw along the trail, and of course the shear rock wall located across the lake when you finally arrive at its inlet. I hiked Goat Lake in October and only remember seeing one other group of hikers while I was there. I did get rained on off and on throughout the day, but it never became unpleasant. The Sawtooth Mountains can become a very peaceful place in the Fall.
I returned in October 2020 on a backpacking trip to explore the basin above Goat Lake. Goat Lake wasn't quite as pretty the second time, as there were no clouds and a lot of smoke in the sky from the California wildfires. There were also a lot more people. Once arriving at Goat Lake, we continued around the left side of the lake along a pretty rough trail, then made a steep climb over the pass behind the lake. Once reaching the top of the pass, we were a bit let down by the first lake, as it was really low due to how late in the year we were hiking. However, the next lake we came to was nearly completely full, and was much larger than I had been expecting. We found a spot to camp just above it.
The next morning we continued all the way up to the end of the basin, where we passed several more bodies of water and a waterfall coming out of the last lake. It was a beautiful area that was fun to explore, but the whole time we just kept thinking about how much nicer it would be in July or August when it was greener and all the lakes, ponds and streams were full. It was completely empty while we were there, which was nice due to the large number of people at Goat Lake. I'd love to come up here again earlier in the year, and probably try it as a day hike so I could make all the steep climbs without a pack.
