Ice Lake Basin Backpacking 9/1 to 9/2/2007

Looking up the trail early on.

Back towards the valley where we parked.

The view to the west during the hike in.

Ryan checking out a cool bridge. It looked like something built during the mining area. A hiking trail now crosses it; it's located on a shelf in the middle of a waterfall.

Looking down the waterfall.

Another view west.

The upper part of the aforementioned waterfall.

Ryan + waterfall.

Looking back towards the trailhead from higher up.

When we reached Lower Ice Lake Basin (after 1,600' of climbing in about 1.6 miles), we were treated to this great view of the Golden Horn (center).

The Golden Horn definitely is the centerpiece of the area.

Ryan admires Lower Ice Lake Basin.

Lower Ice Lake Basin.

The head of the lower basin.

A very cool waterfall, the outlet from Ice Lake. The water had carved a deep (couple hundred feet) cleft in the rock and came down in a series of cascades.

Old mine tailings along the outlet from Island Lake.

The stream flowing down from Fuller Lake was also really cool. It cut a notch diagonally through the cliff band for 3/4 of the way down, then turned and spilled directly down the rocks. We wanted to make camp in the trees right at the base, but some guy beat us there by about 15 minutes.

We briefly considered camping in the upper basin, but decided we wanted some shelter in case of lightning. With our first campsite choice taken, we hiked up to a higher bench with some scruffy trees right at timberline, but everything was too choked with willows. This is the view back down into the lower basin.

Back down in the lower basin, Ryan thwacks through a meadow to reach our campsite.

I couldn't decide which version I liked better...

The view south from our campsite.

Camp. Ryan is sleeping. At 2:00pm. OK, so I took a nap too, sue me.

The north side of Lower Ice Lake Basin from camp under some cool lighting.