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| Independence Lakes   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Idaho, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 42.18560°N / 113.6603°W Route Type: Hike Time Required: Half a day Difficulty: Walk up
| Route Quality: | | | | Loading...
| Page By: Dean Created/Edited: Mar 19, 2005 / Mar 19, 2005 Object ID: 164376 Hits: 930 Loading... Page Score: 87.26% - 4 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
Taking Idaho highway 27, go south to Oakley and turn left on Main Street. Drive east and pass a turnoff to the City of Rocks at about the one mile mark from where you turned. Continue on another 6 miles to a junction. The pavement ends here but turn left on road 548 and go 5.5 miles to Basin-Elba Pass. At the pass, turn southeast (right) onto FS 562, a somewhat primitive road and go 1.7 miles to FS road 728 and turn left and take this to the Independence Lakes TH (not signed) but about 5 miles from the pass .
Route Description
At the TH, there are some walk in campsites and the trail makes it way through these and continues for two miles, at first in the form of an old road but which narrows and becomes a trail. In these two miles, the trail is relatively flat making a whopping elevation gain of 200 feet.
At the two mile mark, look for a side trail that heads up to the Independence Lakes. The first mile to the first lake climbs about 800 feet. Cross the outlet and take the signed trail up a wooded ridge on the south side of the first lake
(elev 8868). Within a half mile from the outlet of the first lake, the 2nd lake (elev 9041) is reached. Continue on to a third lake (elev 9105) which is another .2 of a mile and continue past it and go south and upward to the last lake (elev 9168) which is reached in another .3 of a mile. Above this lake, you can see the a saddle which is between Independence Mtn and Cache Peak at an elevation of 9560 and head cross country up to it and then head south for the summit of Cache Peak, although it is easy to also add the summit of Independence Mtn. to your efforts.
RT - 9 miles Elevation gain - 2600 feet
Essential Gear
None although if early in the season and snowfields remain an ice axe might be worthwhile to carry and in icy conditions even crampons. From July to late fall, no special equipment should be required.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
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Albion Range
