Spring had sprung in Idaho and the itch to get out was starting. I emailed a few friends and it turned out that John F. was interested in getting out as well. He had been out several weekends in a row, so we decided on something close from the list of options I gave him... Beaver Peak near Buttercup Mountain.

Beaver Peak is 8562' high and has a prominence of almost 1000 feet. I had noticed it had nearly snow-free ridges on a recent drive to Hailey. So John and I planned to drive up Willow Creek, then follow the long southwest ridge to the summit.

During the drive, we found that we could drive up Cherry Creek about .75 miles. At that point we were stopped by a gate and private property. We parked there and headed south up to the ridge and away from the creek. From the looks of the slopes above, we decided against snowshoes.

On the hike up to the ridge we were on mostly dry ground, but occasionally crossed some hard snow. What we were both realizing now was the peak was a long way away and the ridge we were on was quite complex, as we meandered up, down, and around.

The other thing we were figuring out was that we were in the middle of the Beaver Creek fire from last summer. Not much had burned during the first part of our hike, but higher up, entire mountainsides had been stripped of their vegetation. The snow was affected to, as the ash in the snow had changed melting patterns and created neat patterns in the snow.

After 3.5 hours, 3200 feet of elevation gain, and 5 miles of hiking we stood on the summit. There was a large rock cairn and great views of the Smokies, Boulders, and Pioneers. I was shocked by how well you could see the entire Pioneer range from this vantage point. The wind was blowing, so despite the blue bird day, it was cold on top!

We decided to go a different route on the way down. We dropped to the saddle between Beaver Peak and Buttercup Mountain. This route gave us an up-front view of how destructive this fire was. From the peak to the saddle, all vegetation was gone... only inch tall nubs of sagebrush and other plants remained. Most trees I have seen after a fire have blackened bark and lose some needles, but a lot of these trees were limbless and nearly completely burned.

After leaving the saddle, we caught a ridge between 2 forks of Cherry Creek and then dropped off a steep and completely vegetation-less slope to Cherry Creek. The creek saw a major flood event at some point recently and was covered in sand and silt for several miles.

We eventually arrived back at the vehicle. It was a tough day of over 10 miles, but we both enjoyed the views and this wild area. Views of Buttercup Mountain the entire day were impressive and might even convince me to do the rare thing and repeat climbing a peak.

From US 20 east of Fairfield, turn north onto Princess Mine Rd. This turn is about 10 miles east of Fairfield.

Follow this road north, turning right onto Baseline Road, then left onto Willow Creek Road. We followed Willow Creek Road for about 8 miles to Cherry Creek. There is a bathroom on the right and Cherry Creek is signed at the bridge.

From Willow Creek Road, we turned right onto Cherry Creek Road. We drove less than a mile and parked at the gate and private property sign. From there, we hiked south to gain the ridge and then followed the southwest ridge to the summit.