The Trailer Lakes are a series of three small alpine glacial lakes in Boise County, Idaho, United States, located in the Sawtooth Mountains in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The Trailer Lakes are in the Trail Creek watershed, which is a tributary of the South Fork Payette River. The lakes are most easily accessed from Sawtooth National Forest trail 453.
The majestic Trailer Lake lies beneath Regan Peak and is an overlooked gem of the Sawtooths.
Forest and I set forth on an early Spring day hike out of Grandjean and up the switchback trail of Trail Creek. This is one of my favorite Spring or late Fall hikes. The first part of the trail is generally clear of snow. The trail is muddy but that just brings the excitement of seeing tracks from deer, wolf, cougar and bear who are using it as a highway. The second half of the trail either has melting or fresh hard packed snow which helps cool the hike down and bring a new mood over the mountain.
We past the Trail Creek lakes on our way up, and looking back down into the Grandjean drainage showed us some of the areas iconic saw toothed ridges. Trailer lake was partially frozen over by a thin layer of mirrored ice. The ridge above is Regan Peak which separates Trailer Lake from Sawtooth Lake. On our way down we saw a wolverine track line in the snow. He must have passed through just earlier that morning, coming right down the ridgeline like it was easy as could be.
“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” ~Andy Rooney