Hiking at Timpanogas Lake area

While everyone else went biking last weekend when we were camping in Oakridge, Sheila, April and I went hiking. We drove about 45 miles northeast of Oakridge to the Timpanogas Trail Area. There are three decent sized lakes and several small ones, with a multitude of different trails. By the time we got there the back of my car was COVERED in dust! After about 30 miles on paved roads, you go another 15 miles approx on gravel roads to get to Timpanogas Lake. Fun drive, though it definitely strained the new engine in my car. The dust was literally falling off the car like water in a rainstorm.

Once we started off on the trail we realized quickly that the bugs were crazy bad! I put on my BUZZ OFF bandana, and I gotta tell ya...it works!!!

We hiked to Indigo Lake. On Indigo Lake is a hike/bike-in campground. It's very isolated and primitive, but it was amazingly beautiful. Indigo Lake is fairly shallow at this end and was nice and warm. In the back you can see Sawtooth Mountain. It was truly as beautiful as April's face suggests! :) There are several campsites scattered around the lake, but this is the one closest to the trail and the outhouse.

April and I looking up at Sawtooth Mountain. We were going to hike around the lake, then have lunch and go for a little swim. We should have gone swimming right when we got there! By the time we hiked around the lake, a noisy family arrived. The only people we saw all day. Oh well, we had lunch and then continued on.

You can see Sawtooth Mountain in the back. The base is just a big scree slope that you have to walk over to continue around the lake. You can see close-up pictures on my Flickr Gallery (link to the right), along with all the other pictures of the hike and our camping trip. Here's Sheila posing on the edge of the lake. It was fabulous up there! The elevation is about,920 feet. Sheesh. I thought, for some silly reason, that Machu Piccu was only 8,000-10,000 feet. Nope. It's more like 16,000 feet!

You can hike up Sawtooth Mountain, but to do so you first have to hike up Cowhorn Mountain off to the...left? and then up that left slope of Sawtooth. I'd love to camp at Indigo Lake some time and do that hike. It'd be an amazing time. Fun!