Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho

Bench Lake with Mt. Heyburn first light

A great day hike for anyone in the Sawtooths it the trail up to Bench Lake. It is only 3.5 miles and not too steep. And boy, what a view. There are actually 4 lakes that make up the Bench lakes. The first is just an oversized puddle. This is the second and by far the best view.
For this trek, I rolled out of my sleeping bag at 4:45AM at Redfish lake. I hiked in the dark for just over 2 hrs. with the trail lit only by my head lamp and a half moon helped some. I actually went to the next lake above this one and decided that the sunrise would be better here. So I quickly, and I mean I was moving pretty fast to get back to this lake and caught it for first light. I spent several hrs. here. Had a little bite to eat and then hike up tow more lakes to the base of Mt. Heyburn that you can see in the background. Beautiful country.

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