Pettit and Toxaway Lakes Loop | 2 Nights Backcountry Camping in the Sawtooth Mountains

After 4 years of full-time travel, we have developed our own premium leather passport wallet for couples and families. It is manufactured in Istanbul, and it is officially LIVE! Check it out here: https://travaci.com Join us in this video as we back country camp in the Sawtooth Mountains. Over the next 3 days and 2 nights, we plan to hike the Pettit and Toxaway Lakes Loop which is around 18 +/- miles in total. Day 1 We get started around 2PM on the Tin Cup Hiker Trailhead. Today we are hiking to Alice Lake which is around 6 miles with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. The trail starts out pretty flat following along Petit Lake. At about 1.2 miles in, we reach a sign marking the Sawtooth Wilderness with a free permit box. A permit is required for both camping and day hiking here. The good news is the permits aren't limited and the sites are just first come first serve. We are a little bit nervous about how many campsites will be available since we're getting such a late start but we hold onto high hopes we will still get a good one. We fill out our permit, attach to our pack, and off we go. Most of the elevation gain is in the last section of today's hike so it's pretty slow going once we reach this part with how heavy our packs are. The hike is really beautiful though. After we make it past Petit Lake and out of the forest, the trail really opens up to some beautiful mountain views! We near Alice Lake and come up to a campsite that has a really awesome view of Idaho's "El Capitan." Myles leaves me behind to "hold" this potential spot and continues towards Alice Lake to see if he can find anything better. Around 45 minutes later he returns and lets me know this will not be home for the night. We continue on the trail and make it to the back side of Alice Lake. Alice Lake is stunning. It is surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains and we find the perfect campsite for the night. We get our camp set up and then head down to the lake to make some dinner. We enjoy the sunset and amazing views before calling it a night. Day 2 We wake up around 6:00AM before the sun is up. The water is perfectly still and clear and reflects the surrounding mountains like a mirror. We make some coffee and breakfast and hang out in our hammocks until the sun makes its way up over the mountains. As hard as it is to leave this perfect camp spot, we get everything packed up and continue on the loop. The hike starts off pretty steep as we leave Alice Lake behind. We hike around 1 mile until we reach Twin Lakes and take the slight detour to head down the 2 lakes and have a snack. Next we make our way up and over the pass and there are incredible views back over Twin Lakes the entire way up. We reach the pass, take in one last view of Twin Lakes and then make our way over the pass to a new valley with an entirely new view. It's mainly downhill from here as we make our way to Toxaway Lake. It is another 3 miles until we reach the lake and find our spot for the night. We pick a sight that is tucked into the trees because the forecast is calling for some pretty serious winds so we don't want something quite as exposed. It is around 2:30 at this point so instead of getting our camp set up, we make some lunch at the lake. After lunch, we set up our tent and hammocks and have a relaxing couple hours by the lake. We then set out to explore a bit and find the perfect spot to make dinner and watch the sunset. It has been another perfect day and it's time to turn in for the night. Day 3 We wake up around 7:30. It was a cold and windy night so we have a hard time getting out of our sleeping bags this morning. We finally work up the courage because we are very motivated by coffee. After breakfast, we go ahead and get everything packed up because we have a long day ahead. After our 7 or so mile hike back we have a 5 hour drive to Montana this afternoon so we hit the trail around 9AM. Today's section of the hike is mostly downhill except for one uphill part towards the end. We make our way past several more lakes and our favorite one of the day is definitely Farley Lake After 5 or so miles, we reach the section of uphill and have a quick snack break. While it stinks to have any uphill on the final day, it really is not bad at all. It lasts around a mile but is pretty gradual. We are now in the home stretch and have one final mile down to Petit Lake. We reach the lake and somehow we have completed a 20 mile lake loop hike, passing a dozen alpine lakes and have not gone for a swim so that changes now. We take a quick dip in Petit Lake to finish off the incredible weekend! This really has been the perfect way to end our time in Idaho! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Thanks for watching! Please subscribe to our channel :) Follow us on Instagram:   / waypointofview