Mount Borah, Idaho

 

Mount Bora - 12,662'

July 14, 2024

It's the beginning of our summer vacation and Laura, Hazel and I are loaded up in the Jeep ready to head north through Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington to the North Cascades and Canada. We'd be on the road for a full month! Our first stop is Fossil Butte. Fossil Butte is a relatively unknown national monument on the western edge of Wyoming.  They have a nice collection of fossils and a fun treasure hunt style junior ranger program that Hazel enjoyed. 

Laura, Hazel and Justin at Fossil Butte National Monument

Laura and Hazel at Fossil Butte

Hazel searched for various fossils to complete her junior ranger program

The next stop was Craters of the Moon National Monument where we would camp for a few nights and Laura and I would attempt Idaho’s highest mountain, Mount Borah. We met Grandma at Craters of the Moon on Saturday evening and Hazel was excited to explore the monument with her. 

Hazel loves camping and was adamant about helping with the dishes

We were some of the only people camping at Craters and chose one of the few campsites with a tree for shade

We took the time to explore the lava tubes while we were at Craters

We hiked to the end of several of the lava tubes, exploring tight passages and enjoying the cool temperatures underground.

You could really see the lava flows in some parts of the tubes

The baren landscape and smokey air really did make it seem like the moon or a different planet

Laura and I headed out early Sunday morning for the 2 hour drive to the Mount Borah Trailhead. We started up the trail just after 6 a.m. on the standard chicken out ridge route.  Despite being very steep, the trail was well-maintained for the first few miles before becoming rocky the rest of the way to the summit. 

Justin by some gnarled trees on the Mount Borah trail

Justin on Mount Borah

The hike went easily and we met some nice people to talk with from the surrounding area.  Even the widely discussed and feared "chicken-out-ridge" was just a short scramble. We summited in three hours on a beautiful day. There were fires in Washington state at the time, so the views weren’t perfectly clear because of the smoke, but we were happy to get to look around from the Idaho state high point anyway.  

Justin coming up the crux of the route with the true summit in the upper left.  Someone had left some rope, but we didn't trust it.

We headed back down and were back to camp by early afternoon. The total hike was just under 8 miles with 5,000 feet of elevation gain and took us about five hours roundtrip. Since the wind was howling, blowing lava dust in our faces and the smoke was thick, we decided to pack up camp and try to move on that same afternoon.

We headed north and made our overnight stop in La Grande Oregon, where we took Hazel swimming in the swimming pool. We made our planned camp dinner of chicken salads in the hotel room and took the opportunity to wash both our dishes and ourselves thoroughly not knowing when we would have another opportunity.  After a nice breakfast the following morning, we headed north once again.