Lamoille Canyon Hike

Everyone feels much better after our day spent doing next to nothing.  Cooper is feeling frisky again so off we headed to the end of Lamoille Canyon road.  Looking at the map we chose to head towards Lamoille Lake…2 miles out.  We thought if we all felt good we could extend the hike up to Liberty Pass and if we felt really good go on to Liberty Lake.   The hike started at an elevation of 8400 feet in the parking lot.   At Lamoille Lake we reached an elevation of 9740 feet and once we reached Liberty Pass we were at 11,032 feet.  Liberty Lake then dropped back down to 10,0039 feet.   Mmm, sounds a bit high doesn’t it?

It was pretty neat to hike up out of Lamoille Canyon and meander our way via the MANY switchbacks up the canyon walls.  The views back down towards the roadway were incredible.  Steep granite walls and bright blue sunshine…spectacular.    

We made our way to Lamoille Lake and Cooper made his way into the lake to cool off and get a drink.  He normally only goes out up to the belly, but this time he misjudged the depth and had to swim or sink.  He lasted only for a second, but we’ll count it as his first actual swim in the last 2 years. 

At the Pass

After wandering around the lake taking shots of the wildflowers and the surrounding canyon walls we decided to continue the hike up to Liberty Pass.  The elevation climb wasn’t too bad considering how high in altitude we were…the views were pretty awesome.  During one of our water breaks we noticed an orange spot across the way…it was a tent perched on what appeared to be the edge of a cliff.  A dude was sitting outside his tent shaving.  You never know what you’ll see…at least he was fully dressed.  Of course we didn’t realize a dude was sitting there until we looked at our pictures back at the campsite.

Lamoille Lake

Liberty Lake

Once we got up to the Pass and looked down below towards Liberty Lake Bill decided he just had to get closer to the lake which was a gorgeous blue.  It was a mile down to its shores and Cooper stayed behind with Cindi...sitting under a shade tree until Bill returned.  We all turned back and retraced our steps back down towards the parking lot.  

 Another detour was made by Lamoille Lake so Cooper could ‘swim’ for his biscuits…he really does need practice on retrieving  his biscuit and swimming at the same time.  Poor thing almost sank trying to do both things at once.

Views from Liberty Pass

Everyone made it safely down. Cooper immediately started his 3:00 PM nap since we were a bit past that getting down the trail…blaming the dog because he kept trying to find friends, Chip and Squirrel.  Each and every time he was off leash he headed for these gigantic rock piles to sniff…ignoring us until we started moving down the mountain.

We headed into town for ice and a few groceries…a grilled shrimp dinner was our reward for getting another 6 mile hike (Cooper and Cindi) and 8 mile hike (Bill) done without any mishaps.  Tomorrow we’re going to try and find the local marshland in the Ruby Mountains…in Nevada of all places.

Lamoille Lake

Looking for Bill

Chipmunk food

Lamoille Canyon

 

Beaver