Silver Lake

Boulder Mountains, ID

Saturday 17 August 2024 78 °F

Yesterday, Thursday, August 15, my mom and I headed up to the Boulder Mountains to hike up to Silver Lake.

We chose this hike specifically because my mom lucked out this year and was able to rent a Ford F150 for the month which is a high clearance vehicle with 4WD and therefore we finally had a vehicle with the means to navigate some of Idaho’s toughest mountain roads. One such road is that which leads to the Silver Lake Trailhead so I jumped on this opportunity to take this hike which otherwise would have been inaccessible due to said road conditions.

It was a gorgeous hike with a good amount of bird activity — I am linking to my eBird checklist here since I have so many non-bird photos from the day and don’t want this post to be overly long. So, you can see the bird list and photos here which included a PEREGRINE FALCON preying on sparrows, BLACK ROSY-FINCHES, multiple warbler species, and beautiful looks at an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S191568497

The scenic drive in. This range is called the Boulder Front, and we would be hiking right into it!

Dash showing 37F as the starting temp, though it seemed a bit warmer than that in actuality.

Posing with the trusty F150 at the trailhead.

We agreed this hike had the most scenic from-the-trailhead views, ever. A sweeping vista looking out over the Boulder & Smoky Mountains.

The hike wasn’t overly long but was quite steep. At one point, we followed this scenic waterfall up the slope.

A thunderstorm started to move in around 8:30am.

Luckily, the bulk of it went north of us and we only were subject to a brief hail shower. Nothing like mountain weather!

And…a pika!!! Gosh, I love these cute alpine dwellers.

Now this one deserves a crop.

We made it to Silver Lake by 11:00am, along with another slight rain shower. The lake levels were pretty low as evidenced by a few “beaches” but it was still very beautiful with towering 10-11000 foot peaks surrounding us.