Spring Mtn. Pass

 We're creating a blog post specifically for this portion of the route for our June 2016 Road Trip.  We're calling this route "Spring Mountain Pass".  It is not named Spring Mtn. Pass on any map but it seems logical to call it that.  The route comes up out of Sawmill Canyon on Squaw Creek, tops out on Spring Mtn. at 10,000 feet and then drops steeply down into Spring Mountain Canyon.

We found this route in the book "Backcountry Roads Idaho." It's on Pages 181-184. Anyway, the authors of that book use really goofy GPS coordinates that area difficult to decipher and translate into the coordinate system we use.  There's NO way we want to become confused, disoriented or (gawd forbid) downright lost on this route.  Hence, we are studying it intensively and will eventually make color prints of each component of the routing.  Red lines and red dots indicate the route.

We use two formats here--one is "x-large" and the other is "original size."  It's easier to look at the details in the original size graphics.

This is an old topo map but it actually shows the details better than either  Google Earth or Google Maps.

Interesting report on The Spring Mountain Mine

http://www.idahogeology.org/PDF/Staff_Reports_(S)/1999/S-99-5.pdf

There must be some pretty complex geology going on up there!

This is definitely not an encouraging review of that road!

http://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/spring-mountain-road-system/


Spring Mountain Canyon sure sounds interesting!

EPISODIC PINEDALE GLACIER RETREAT, SPRING MOUNTAIN CANYON, LEMHI RANGE, EAST-CENTRAL IDAHO

O'CONNELL, James J., Geography, Univ of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045, jjcorover@aol.com and DORT, Wakefield Jr, Geology, Univ of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045On the eastern flank of the Lemhi Range, Spring Mountain Canyon has an especially detailed record of retreat of its Pinedale glacier. The half-mile-wide canyon floor has an over-all gradient of about 450 feet per mile from the base of the cirque headwall at 9400 feet to the canyon-mouth alluvial fan apex at 7400 feet. Several steps, both bedrock and moraine, punctuate the longitudinal profile. Narrow cirques of the main canyon and its tributary, Horseshoe Gulch, cut deeply into the sheltering main divide that rises above l0,400 feet. Late Pleistocene and Holocene aridity permitted remarkable preservation of even minor moraines, both straight segments and loops; deglacial meltwater was scarce. Within the lower half of the main canyon 60 mappable moraine segments were delineated, 43 in the upper half, but only l4 in steeper Horseshoe Gulch. Most of the deposits lie on the northerly side of the valley where melting was concentrated, the southerly side being generally in shadow. Based on conservative interpretation of cross-cutting and over-riding relationships of moraine segments, 6 readvances are identified in the lower canyon and at least 7 in the upper canyon. Numerous stillstands are also indicated. A real nice climbing report from the area: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2187170/How-to-hike-3-10-000-Ft-Peaks-in-a-day-I-had-to-be-high Looks like it would be worth the trip just to climb Big Windy! http://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/big-windy-peak/