By Michael Lanza
Our day’s primary goal—reaching the 10,470-foot summit of Horstman Peak, which had eluded us on a previous attempt—was already behind us when my friend Chip Roser and I descended south off Horstman to hike across a valley that lies just a few miles as the crow flies from the busiest spot in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, and yet probably sees no more than a handful of hikers a year. We’d gotten distant views of the Monolith Valley before, but those glimpses hardly did justice to the spectacle of this stunning paradise of water and granite.
We boulder-hopped across a glacier-carved cirque to a rocky promontory overlooking a triad of clear, alpine lakes glistening in the sun at nearly 9,000 feet. An arc of razor-sharp spires and peaks stretched before us, forming an almost impregnable, natural fortress. The only ways in or out of the Monolith Valley are by hiking many hard miles off-trail over Horstman Peak or one of three passes that range from about 9,400 feet to nearly 10,000 feet high, or bushwhacking up a thickly forested tributary of Fishhook Creek, finding your way around and through numerous cliff bands. Not surprisingly, very few hikers have ever heard of the Monolith Valley, let alone seen it—even though, just a few hours after enjoying the view in this photo, Chip and I would finish our nearly 12-hour dayhike in the company of hundreds of tourists at Redfish Lake.
I’ll write about this hike and our climb of Horstman Peak in an upcoming feature story, with many photos and a video. Meanwhile, see all of my stories about Idaho’s Sawtooths at The Big Outside, including my previous One Photo, One Story posts from similar peak-bagging hikes of 9,860-foot McGown Peak and the highest in the Sawtooths, 10,751-foot Thompson Peak; this photo gallery from the Sawtooth Wilderness; this story about Chip and I climbing another prominent Sawtooths peak, Mount Heyburn; my feature stories “Going After Goals: Backpacking in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains” and “Jewels of the Sawtooths: Backpacking to Alice, Hell Roaring, and Imogene Lakes;” and this Ask Me post where I answer a reader’s question: What are the best hikes in Idaho’s Sawtooths? And click here for a menu of all of my stories about hiking at The Big Outside.
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This looks cool Mike. I plan to give it a shot approaching from the Bench Lakes
Hi Tom, that’s the most direct and easiest approach; I’ve exited that way after a longer loop starting with the standard route up Thompson Peak. It’s a bit brushy and tricky to navigate from the lowest Bench Lake but the upper one is gorgeous, as is the cirque above it (which I’ve backcountry skied). Look around at that pass on the north side of Heyburn (above the Bench Lakes) to find the best route down into Monolith basin, which follows a line of vegetation; it’s steep but not too bad, it looks steeper than it is.
Well, we did it. You’re right, absolutely magical. Also toughest hike I’ve ever done in the Sawtooths. We entered from the pass at the head of the cirque (south of the lakes). Very sketchy on the way down. Would not really recommend. Spent the night at the big lake in Monolith Valley. Exited by going down the valley to its confluence with Fishhook Creek. Lots of beautiful views going down but brutal. Mike did you hike down from Horstman into Monolith Valley (or just scope it out from the ridge/pass)? You hiked the pass between Monolith Valley and the Bench lakes?
Congrats, Tom, that’s a burly hike into a beautiful area of the Sawtooths that very few people see because there’s no trail to it. I’ve been up Horstman a couple of times (kind of brutal) and on one of those occasions descended into the Monolith Valley, crossing it to the pass above the Bench Lakes (north of Heyburn) to return to the trailhead. It was a dayhike loop that included Thompson Peak and Mickey’s Spire (amazing day).
I haven’t taken the descent route you describe into the Redfish Creek Valley but I think the easier route would be to cross the pass at the head of the Monolith Valley, which enables you to quickly tag Braxon Peak, a great one. From there, I’ve been up and down the steep drainage of the little alpine lakes in the small cirque SE of Braxon (when I climbed that peak), it’s steep but not too sketchy.
I also think it’s probably possible to descend the NW ridge of Braxon Peak into the valley of the Stevens Lakes and hike up to the head of that valley and cross the pass—which I’ve looked at from Horstman, it’s not steep—that dumps you onto Trail 101 just east of the pass at Baron Divide. Then you have a civilized finish to Redfish Inlet.
Good luck with your exploring, Tom. Keep me updated.
Thanks Mike. That was one heck of a dayhike you did. I agree that Bench Lakes exit would have been the most civilized way to go.
BTW is there a way to “subscribe” to a post like this so that I get notifications if someone else posts to the discussion (assuming you and I aren’t the only ones crazy enough to do this cirque!)?
Yea, we had a fun, big day. I’ll look into an answer for you on the question of subscribing to the comments section of a specific post.