I'm heading up to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho with the family near the end of July for a few days, and was hoping to find some nice family hikes to do. My brother and I are doing Thompson Peak via the standard route from the Fishhook Creek Trailhead & South Couloir (starting from Redfish Lake side), but for the family hikes I was looking for some scenic ones that are under around 5 miles roundtrip and 1,000 feet of elevation gain.

The ones I've already tagged as must-do's in the Stanley area are Fourth of July Lake in the White Clouds, and Lily Lake / Redfish Lake Creek Falls on the other side of Redfish Lake (we'll take a boat across beforehand). Are there any other awesome scenic family hikes in the area? I've contemplated doing the first mile or so of the Alpine Lake trail just going to the meadows around Iron Creek, and also hiking just a mile along the Alpine Creek Trail (past Alturas Lake) to the granite knoll about a mile in, but don't know if these are the best if we're only doing a couple other hikes. I have the "Day Hiker's Guide to Stanley, Idaho" book, but it doesn't take sides in terms of which hikes are better / more scenic than others.

Under 5 miles.... hmmmm... most of the approaches are forested and can have lots of initial gain. The really sweet parts are just a bit farther in than 2.5 miles. That said:

Any hike up Redfish Creek is spectacular, but the first part is the hard part. And the boring part, because you're in the trees. After the first 1.5 miles or so, it mellows out and the views are staggering. Super scenic.

Fourth of July Lake is pretty. And you can loop over to do Blackmon Peak, the easiest peak over 10k around, with a view into Antz Basin.

Bench Lakes is a popular hike (there are 5 lakes). But again, lots of initial gain and the views come late.

The hike up toward Lady Face Falls (Stanley Lake) is flat and pretty. Good view of McGown Peak. I recently had an altercation with a moose on this trail.

I agree with splattski that it is hard to get to many lakes in the Sawtooths with the 5 mile, 1000ft RT criteria. Alpine Lake from Iron creek is about 1000ft up and is nice (Sawtooth Lake beyond is even better). The Lily Lake trail is very short but for better views, I would agree to hike further up Redfish Creek. Fourth of July Lake is pretty quick- it is easy to keep going to Washington Lake which is bigger and more scenic (I carried my son up there when he was a year old and he backpacked up there when he was seven). Horton Peak in Whiteclouds is over 1000ft but has a well graded trail and good views across the valley to the Sawtooths. Just north of Stanley in the Salmon River Mountains, Langer Lake and Ruffneck Lakes are nice and are pretty simple (with the option of continuing up Ruffneck Peak to the lookout)- had a few mosquito issues there a few years back so beware.

You can drive into Yellowbelly Lake and hike into Farley lake from there. I believe the hike from Yellowbelly to Farley to be 6 miles round trip. The crux of the trip is a creek crossing on a bouncy (large) log. Totally doable though. Make sure to take some bug spray.



You can also drive to the upper trailhead on the Hell Roaring trail and hike into Hell Roaring Lake. It offers a pretty good bang for the buck and the terrain is really easy.

I think these are the ones we'll look to do:

* Fourth of July Lake (& Washington Lake if others are up for it)
* Redfish Creek (as far as others are willing to go)
* Lady Face Falls
* Yellowbelly Lake (if we have time for one more hike)

Thanks for the advice, everybody!

Good choices.
And if you get to sneak out on your own, don't forget this page (10 Easy Sawtooth Scrambles):
http://www.summitpost.org/top-10-easy-p ... ths/674005