Stanley
Redfish Lake Lodge on a beautiful summer day - it's a zoo
One of our favorite spots to stay in the mountains has been Redfish Lake Lodge. The rustic main building is almost a hundred years old and is right on the shore of Redfish Lake, one of the most beautiful spots in Idaho. Over the years Sandy and I have stayed there many times. Sadly in the last few years it has become badly overcrowded. What used to be an escape to the wilderness is now completely overrun. It's suffered the same fate as a lot of national parks - too many people.
We started to look for an alternative. Redfish Lake Lodge has two sister properties. One of them is the Stanley High Country Inn, which is located in the town of Stanley. We tried staying there once, in 2019. We thought it was...ok. The lodge itself was very nice. It provided a base close to the Sawtooth Wilderness for hikes. But it was right in town. There were no views of the mountains. Time spent in the inn was just time spent in a hotel room. At Redfish Lake, hanging out at the lodge and admiring the mountains after a hike was as much a part of the experience as the hikes themselves.
The mighty hikers at Fishhook Creek Meadow
There is another sister property, the Stanley Riverside Inn. After the interruption to travel by the pandemic, we finally gave it a try in 2022. It's also located in town, but on Highway 75 right next to the Salmon River. The lodge is quite small. There are two floors in the main building with only four rooms per floor. There are also a couple of other rooms in other buildings. On each floor there is a patio that stretches the length of the back of the building. The river is just a few feet away. On the other side is a large meadow and then the foothills of the White Clouds rise up. Although not as spectacular a view as from Redfish Lake Lodge, it is very calm and relaxing to sit overlooking the Salmon River and the hills beyond it. Only a few buildings are visible a little over a mile to the north, in Lower Stanley. There was hardly ever anyone out on the patio. Usually we had it all to ourselves. We decided that we really liked the Riverside Inn. We've made it a point to go up there for a couple of days every year since then.
Hiking along Fishhook Creek
Except this year. Because the lodge is so small, it books up way ahead of time. They usually start accepting reservations for the year in January and I would make ours right away. We go in late June or early July. Summer weather has arrived by then, but we don't have to worry about smoke from fires that early in the season. This year we had a couple of other things that we were planning, at around that time of the year, that weren't nailed down yet. We didn't feel confident choosing dates for Stanley. By the time things settled down, it was too late. They were booked up. Oh well. I figured that we can always go next year.
A little before my birthday, I got a nice surprise from Sandy. She gave me an early birthday present. She had been keeping an eye on the hotel website. When they got a cancellation, she pounced on it right away and reserved the room for us. She got two nights for us starting the day before my birthday. Awesome! This year we were going to celebrate my birthday in the mountains.
One difference was that we didn't get a room in the main building. They have a small building across the road with four rooms. It wouldn't have the river out back, but it should have a view of the mountains. Plus the rooms in that building were pet friendly. We wanted to try it to see if we might take Abby with us on a future trip. She loves to hike in the mountains too, although she is getting a little old for it.
Horstmann Peak - I've never managed to climb this peak
We arrived in Stanley around lunchtime so we only had time to do a short hike. We chose an old standard, the Fishhook Creek Trail. It starts at the Redfish Lake Trailhead and ends in a meadow with a spectacular view, dominated by Horstmann Peak. I've tried to climb that mountain twice and never even reached the lower slopes. Although it doesn't look far away, there are no trails that go anywhere near it. Reaching it requires long cross country travel. I've tried approaching from the Bench Lakes basin and from the Fishhook Creek drainage and failed both times.
Today we weren't that ambitious and were just going to do the hike to the meadow. It's only 4.5 miles round trip and is mostly flat - less than 300 feet of elevation gain. It's about an hour of easy hiking each way. One advantage of the Fishhook Creek Trail is that it is at a lower elevation, so it's always snow free early in the summer. We had gorgeous weather with totally blue skies, and the view from the end of the trail was indeed spectacular.
Enjoying an ice cream at Sawtooth Coffee Company
Afterwards we stopped at Redfish Lake Lodge to check out the store. We walked out front to the lake shore and sure enough, it was a zoo. The chairs out front were all taken. The tiny beach was packed. There were people in the water, people in boats, and people playing volleyball on the lawn. Nope. Not like the old days.
The next day we set out to do another old favorite, the Sawtooth Lake Trail. It's just under 10 miles round trip and 1800 feet of elevation gain. A healthy hike. It goes a lot higher so we weren't sure if we would run into too much snow near the lake but we wanted to give it a try. It turns out we didn't get that far. At about the half way point there is a stream crossing. I've done this hike many times and usually it's fairly easy to cross on various logs and rocks. This time the stream was really high, much higher than I had ever seen it. Not surprising this early in the summer when snow was still melting up high.
View from the Sawtooth Lake Trail
People were getting across. We knew that because earlier we had met some people that were coming down who said that they had made it to the lake. Obviously they got across the stream in both directions. It didn't look easy though. Crossing required balancing on some narrow logs that were pretty high above the stream. We decided it wasn't worth it. Too risky for a hiker on his seventy second birthday. I wash't taking a chance with these old bones. No sense breaking an ankle trying to do a hike we had done many times before and would probably do again.
Even though we didn't make it all the way to Sawtooth Lake, I still really enjoyed our hikes on this trip. The weather was perfect and it was fun just being in the mountains. I've hiked and climbed in the Sawtooths a lot over the years and know them really well. It was like spending my birthday with old friends.
Sandy on the Fishhook Creek Trail
Of course hiking wasn't all we did on this trip. We needed to eat to get the energy that we needed, and we had some good meals. One night we had pizza at Papa Brunees. We also had a burger and fries for linner at Sawtooth Luces. Both times we enjoyed ice cream afterwards. It was a good thing that we had two days. We got to try both PeaksandPerks and Sawtooth Coffee Company in the River 1 store.. They were both good but Sandy and I agreed that we liked Sawtooth Coffee Company better.
We got breakfast at the Stanley Baking Company. They make good stuff but they are always mobbed. They have a cafe but no matter how early you come, it's full and there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Believe me, we've tried. They also have a takeout window where the line wasn't too long. We got our stuff and took it back to have breakfast on our patio. My cinnamon roll was delicious. The perfect thing to power a hike.
You are now entering the Sawtooth Wilderness
It was short trip but a great way to celebrate my birthday. I really enjoyed it. Sandy gets an A+ for arranging it. Our review of the lodge room was that it was ok but we prefer the ones by the river. We had a view of the mountains but it was looking past a big field. They hold various events there, like live concerts or craft fairs, so there were various trailers scattered around. All that clutter in the foreground really spoiled the view. Besides, it was hot sitting in the sun late in the day. And ast Abby gets older, bringing her along really isn't a factor. So next year I am determined to book our Stanley trip early.
