Anthony Lakes Area 9/28/08

[cfm]

On Sunday, my friend Mark and I drove up to the Anthony Lakes area to do a loop around Gunsight Butte. This is a variation on Sullivan's suggested hike in 100 Hikes in Eastern Oregon. We added a bunch of cross country scrambles, what a hoot!

We started at the Anthony Lakes boat ramp and headed towards (the two) Hofer lakes. Here one of the lakes reflects part of our route:


We circled around the lakes, and scrambled up to the former site of The Lakes lookout tower. The summit is right of center in this shot, Lee's Peak climbs out of the frame on the left.


Here is a view from the top of the The Lakes LO site, the Walllowas are on the horizon:



We scrambled down to the saddle between The Lakes and Lees Peak and went over the west side of the ridge thorugh huge boulder fields to pick up the Crawfish Basin Trail. This reminded me of traveling through the Greenleaf slide, but the rocks weren't as loose:



We headed south to Dutch Flat Saddle and picked up the Elkhorn Crest trail to lead us back to Anthony Lake. When we reached Angell Pass, we took a side trip climbing up to the rightside of the tip of this gap:



The granite world here was incredibly beautiful. The gelogy was completely different from what I saw at the other end of the Elkhorn Crest trail the day before.

My favorite shot of the day:



More pictures here.

[Arioto]

Great report! Thanks for posting it!

[Splintercat]

Great report - plus, the forests in the Elkhorns look to be in pretty good shape, compared to the general browning of the Blues. Nice to see that - thanks!

Tom

[jeffstatt]

ooo...very pretty! Next summer I've GOT to get out East. The lay of the land is just so different out there!

I really appreciate you posting all these trip reports lately. I'm very much enjoying them!

[sparklehorse]

Wow, great report and photos CFM, thanks! I've seen The Elkhorns from a distance and have been up to Anthony Lakes before but haven't done any hiking there yet. It's been on my list of backpacking destinations for so long it's not funny. Gotta get up there.

G

[fettster]

Looks beautiful. That view from the lookout down to the lakes makes me want to go out there and explore. According to my geography book the Anthony Lakes name came from the name of the nearby creek which was named for William 'Doc' Anthony who settled along the creek's banks in 1864. Apparently he was a farmer/rancher as well as doctor.