I spent the last week in Florida visiting family, and I didn’t bring a camera. So my lovely girlfriend Tory volunteered to do a guest post about her trip to Stargazer Yurt with Idaho Outdoors Yahoo Group. Enjoy!
Driving to meet everyone for carpooling, the sun was a huge orange orb, a sign of the inversion. Seventeen people snowshoed and skied to the Stargazer Yurt in the Idaho City Yurt system. This event was organized by Boise Trail Heads on Meetup.com. Arriving at the parking lot at Beaver Creek Summit, the sky was clear blue and snow was melting. It was hard to believe that someone would want to stay indoors on a day like that, but in Boise the weather is dreary and freezing. My dog Vuyo was the only dog on the trip and was admired by almost everyone.
The trailhead is about 300 yards from the parking lot, and is marked by a sign. The snow was great with hoar frost.
We snowshoed about 1 1/3 miles to the yurt. The trail to the yurt is not groomed, but well-marked with blazes. There are some steep sections on the trail, climbing almost 600 feet to get to Stargazer Yurt.
There are numerous lookout points along the curves of the trail.
We stopped for lunch at the yurt because Dan the event organizer knew the people staying at the yurt for the weekend and had made tentative plans to meet them. It was nice to be able to stand on the deck of the yurt and look over the valley and mountains. According to the website description for Stargazer Yurt, there are 270 degree views, including 5 peaks and the Sawtooth Mountain range.
From the yurt, we headed around Stargaze Point and most people went northwest form there. The people I had carpooled with decided it was getting harder to proceed because people were punching through the snow in pockets around bushes. The four of us and one other person turned back and went to the top of Stargaze Point at 6,682 feet. Stargaze Point has a wonderful panorama and clear summit.
We hung out there for a while taking pictures and talking about how Jeri had developed a process for dehydrating beer as a food scientist. It was a nice trip back to the trailhead from there with some discussion of how hoar frost forms and understanding snow for avalanche conditions.
The total hike for me was around 3 miles and it was a beautiful warm day.
Directions: Take Hwy 21 north of IdahoCity. Parking for Beaver Creek Summit is after Banner Ridge and before the trailhead.
This trip does require a Park N’ Ski pass, which can be purchased in a 3-day pass or for the season. They are available online and the 3-day pass can be printed immediately. Passes can also be purchased in Idaho City at Tom’s Service and other locations.
Saying I Did It 