Elkhorn tour 7/1-7/5 2020

[cfm]

I drove separately and met my pals at the Anthony Lakes TH which was our endpoint. We donned our masks and I hopped into their car and we drove to Pine Creek Road(just east of Rock Creek Butte), parked at the end of the pavement and started our journey mid-afternoon. We hiked up the rugged road 2000 ft over four miles and made camp at the reservoir which we had to ourselves. The area is frequented by ATVers and anglers.

Rock Creek Butte upper right flat summit

We later realized that we had made camp near the salt lick favored by the local goats.

Goat with broken horn

The next morning we headed further up the old road, but it lead northerly and not toward the Elkhorn Crest Trail. We needed to head southwesterly to reach it at Rock Creek Pass. We were prepared for mountaineering but the snow fields we crossed were not steep and the snow was soft enough to kick in good steps. In no time, we made it to the crest and dropped our packs for a quick scramble up to the summit of Rock Creek Butte, highest point in the Elkhorns at 9106 ft. From the west side it is a walk-up on goat trails and there was no snow.

Pine Creek "road"

Crest trail is in the saddle

delightful cross country travel

view of RCB from saddle

Looking down on Pine Creek Res

Elkhorn Pk from RCB

We scrambled directly down the north side and returned to our packs and headed north to Twin Lakes at 7500 feet. Twin Lakes is in a heavenly basin that is filled with hundreds of goats. They were very pleasant to watch roaming around and grazing the hillsides, but they did come right into camp sniffing around for something salty to lick. In the evening we were constantly shooing them away. We hung our food high and kept all our gear inside the tent.

Twin Lakes

goat herd from our campsite

The following day was a 13 mile trek north on the Elkhorn Crest trail which undulates a bit but is fairly level at 8000 ft. Near the Cracker Creek Pass, the geology suddenly changed and we were now in granite territory! We turned off and hiked a mile down to Summit Lake. This lake was huge and spectacular. Quite a few campers here, but we were able to find an excellent lakeside campsite. Mosquitoes were present but not oppressive. Fish jumping all over the lake.

Granite time on Elkhorn crest

Summit Lake

[cfm]

Trip Report Continued:

Day four was the funnest. We returned to the crest trail and continued north until we swung around to the north flank of Mt Ruth and dropped our packs. Fun scramble up on snow and granite rock. This mountain seems to sit right in the middle of the range and the views were just spectacular! However from this point on northward, the trail was intermittently covered with long stretches of snowdrift. The snow was soft, but there were a few spots were the runout was treacherous if you fell. We were thankful we had poles and our sturdy mountain boots on. Trailrunners not recommended.

Mt Ruth

View north from Mt Ruth

Snowdrifts on trail

After reaching Dutch Flat Saddle, we dropped our packs again and headed to Angell Peak! This one was the most fun. We donned our helmets and brought ice axes, but did not need crampons. Clambered up one sketchy chute and shimmied down another. After returning to the saddle, we took the Crawfish Basin trail a few miles and set up camp along the trail as soon as we could find a flat spot near a stream. Just a few miles to hike out the next morning. About 40 miles and a bit over 10K eg.
Top

Dutch Flat Saddle

True summit of Angell peak is left of big gap

scrambling up to Angell Peak

[drm]

Nice, I guess you won't see any vehicular traffic when there is still snow.

[McChaix]

Nice Report! Thanks!

[bobcat]

Yay! for a report from the Elkhorns! Sounds like a great (peak bagging) trip!

[romann]

I like that area. Thanks for nice report, and for confirming there's nothing too crazy about going over Rock Creek Pass (the upper 100-200 feet seems steep when looking from the trail). And goats in camp are always fun!