Goat Rocks Heart Lake Hike

[branches]

My daughter, her friend, and I hiked into the Goat Rocks Wilderness on 8-4-17 to 8-6-17. We started at 4:00am Friday morning to beat the heat. Our goal for this day was to get to Heart Lake by 10:00am so we could get some pictures of the flowers and the goats in the area. With the smoke in the area we had a hard time getting any pictures of the goats but we did get some pictures of the flowers and in some areas the smells from the flowers were fantastic.

The second morning, we wanted to summit Johnson Peak but when we got halfway up the smoke was very bad and blocked all views and we could not even glass to Hawkeye Point so we decided to go back down and try again on a clear day.

The area still looked great even with the smoke and the heat. We noticed that the goats did not like the heat and after daylight, they would go to there dusting bowls. We also noticed that the biting flies were very much at home flying into our eyes and mouth when we did not want then to.

Overall we had a great time and will be back soon. This is a very beautiful place and we are excited to get the chance to visit.

Also we would like to thank the person or people who cleared the Lilly Basin Trail. They took down at least a half dozen dead falls over the trail and also cleared the brush and re worked the trail to the Heart Lake.

Here is the first set of pictures of our hike.

The flowers were great and the smells were good in the areas that held water. This area even with the heat was still awesome. The birds were working the flowers hard and the scenery was great.

 

[branches]

This is the second set of pictures.

[branches]

Some other pictures

[branches]

Some flower pictures.

[Sandberm]

Wow, great pictures!

Thanks for sharing with us your trip. I like these kinds of threads.

[huntnfmly]

Great pics thanks for sharing

[Todd_ID]

 
Good trip and story!

[boneaddict]

Dang Smoke anyway.   The beauty still surpasses it though.  Thanks for sharing the pics.  It looks like you guys had a great trip

[cbond3318]

Looks like an awesome trip regardless! My wife and I keep joking about the best part of the summer and we're socked in with this smoke! 

great pics! 

[bracer40]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing

[quadrafire]

Nice. I'd like to do that with my daughter

[branches]

Thank you for the replies. I am having a hard time posting pictures?? The area around the lake still holds lots of goats but the elk and deer numbers have dropped off to almost nothing compared to the very first time I came to this place in 1995  .This place is the only basin where I got to see Goats, Deer,Elk, Bear, Cougar, All in one day. Today the goats are a given and if we see anything else it is just a bonus The goats seem to do very well in this spot even with the cougars around. The Flowers, Mountains, and Birds, now make this hike a must see for anybody.

[Skyvalhunter]

Very nice pictures, thanks for posting. Heading out for 3 days of bush wacking myself to survey some lakes.

[Fl0und3rz]

Awesome photos.  Thanks for sharing.  I love that area and have fond memories.  My brother shot his first deer there, way back when.

[fish vacuum]

Really good pics!