Hiking at Big Elk Creek Idaho

It's Sunday and we took the kids and went together with the Millers and their girls. What a great day for a hike. We also wanted to see how low Palisades Lake was... at 5%. Pretty low it was, but may get lower so we can drive out on the lake when the snow gets here and try to find the road and town that lay below the lake...




The Hike...

The hike was very, very nice... some elevation gain and in and out of the water. Here's the Google Earth view of the hike along with the elevation profile. The thick blue line is our hike through the canyon:


Big Elk Creek is such a pretty area. All pine trees back into a deep valley about 30 miles from Jackson Hole. Very nice drive going through Swan Valley and the best trout fishing area in the world... on the South Fork, Snake River.




We also scouted out camping areas for next weekend that we hope to get away with a few other families to camp. There were tons of nice camp sites that we marked on the GPS for next week. Big Elk Creek area is a very, very nice area to hike, fish and camp. Plus the campsites are within 20 feet of most outstanding fishing... all night if ya want to :)


We hiked about mile down the creek. All four kids did really well on the hike, especially since half the hike was through some pretty serious vegetation along with a steep and unforgiving cliff to the right.


We took the West side of the creek trail which eventually connected to a horse trial about .24 miles into the hike. We paralleled the creek the entire way, every once in a while getting close enough to dip ourselves into the water. Very nice day, sunny, cool breeze, absolutely no bugs!


There were tons of Kokanee in the creek. They were making their way from the ocean up to the top of the creek to lay their eggs and die. There were many of them and the girls got to see the very bright orange fish all over in the creek. We ran into a few fishermen that were walking the creek. Some fishing for trout, most for the Kokanee.



Here's a few videos of the day...


VIDEO: Hiking along the trail at Big Elk


VIDEO: More hiking along the Big Elk Trail


VIDEO: Driving by Palisades Lake at 5% capacity


VIDEO: Looking for the Kokanee in the Creek