Redfish Lake
Redfish Lake Rd
Stanley, ID
A clear glacial lake cupped under the Sawtooth spires, named for salmon that swam 900 miles from the sea to spawn in its shallows.
Redfish Lake is the postcard of the Sawtooths, a clear glacial lake set right beneath a wall of granite spires a few miles from Stanley, Idaho. Meltwater and a long-gone glacier carved the basin, and today the lake draws swimmers to its sandy beaches, paddlers onto its cold water, and hikers onto the trails that climb into the Sawtooth Wilderness from its far shore.
The name tells the deeper story. For thousands of years, sockeye salmon swam roughly 900 miles up the Columbia and Snake rivers and climbed more than a mile in elevation to spawn here, and in spawning season they turned bright red, so many of them that the lake was simply called Redfish. That run was very nearly lost, which makes the fish that still return one of the most remarkable comeback stories in the American West.
What Guests Love
- The wall of Sawtooth peaks reflected in the lake, with Mount Heyburn rising straight above the water
- Sandy swimming beaches and a boat shuttle that ferries hikers across to the trailheads on the far shore
- The historic Redfish Lake Lodge, a rustic 1920s log lodge on the north shore
- Paddling, sailing, and simply sitting on the beach with the alpine backdrop
Worth Knowing
- This is high country, so nights are cold even in summer and the water stays bracing
- Summer weekends and the lodge fill up fast; the shoulder seasons are quieter
- The paved road in is seasonal, and the high passes around Stanley can hold snow late and early
- Please do not disturb spawning salmon or their redds in the shallows; the run is still recovering
Details
Stanley, ID
Learn about Redfish Lake
The story of the red fish
Sockeye salmon once returned to the Sawtooth Valley in enormous numbers, with estimates of well over a hundred thousand fish in a good year. Their long journey from the Pacific was among the highest and longest salmon migrations on earth, and the Shoshone-Bannock people have relied on and honored these fish for countless generations, a cultural legacy they still uphold today.
Commercial fishing, logging, pollution, and above all a series of dams on the lower Snake River collapsed the run. By the early 1990s the returns had fallen to almost nothing. In 1992 a single male sockeye made it all the way back to Redfish Lake, and he was nicknamed Lonesome Larry, a lonely symbol of how close the run had come to disappearing.
Larry's return, and the warnings the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes had long been raising, helped launch a captive-breeding rescue that pools the work of the tribes, federal agencies, and Idaho Fish and Game. Sockeye now return to the Sawtooth Valley again in larger numbers, still fragile but alive, and standing on the shore where they spawn is standing inside that recovery.
How the lake and mountains formed
The Sawtooths are built of pale granite that cooled underground tens of millions of years ago and was later lifted and exposed. During the Ice Age, glaciers ground down out of these peaks and gouged the basin that Redfish Lake now fills, leaving behind the ridge of rock and gravel, a moraine, that dams the lake at its lower end.
That glacial history is why the water is so clear and cold and why the shoreline has those unusual sandy beaches, made of granite ground to grit. Mount Heyburn and the other spires above the lake are the same story in reverse, the hard rock the glaciers could not carry away.
Wildlife and the water
Beyond the famous salmon, the lake and the forest around it hold rainbow and other trout, osprey and bald eagles fishing the surface, and the occasional black bear moving through the huckleberry brush. Mule deer and, higher up, mountain goats live in the surrounding Sawtooths.
The forest is classic high Idaho: lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and Engelmann spruce, with wildflower meadows opening up as the trails climb. In the still of early morning the peaks lay a perfect mirror across the lake, one of the reasons this spot has been photographed for a century.
When to go
Summer is the season here. The road, the lodge, and the boat shuttle open once the snow clears, usually by early summer, and the beaches and trails stay busy through the warm months. Wildflowers peak in mid to late summer up in the high basins.
Autumn brings gold to the aspens and quiet to the shoreline, but the weather turns early at this elevation. Winter buries the area in deep snow and the road is not maintained, so the lake belongs to skiers and the cold. Even at the height of summer, pack a warm layer for the evenings.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Stanley
Stanley
About 5 miles north
A tiny, spectacularly sited mountain town at the base of the Sawtooths, gateway to the Salmon River, hot springs, and the whole recreation area.
Sawtooth National Recreation Area
Surrounds the lake
Over 750,000 acres of peaks, alpine lakes, and the headwaters of the Salmon River, with trailheads, campgrounds, and the visitor center near Stanley.
Salmon River headwaters
A few miles from the lake
The River of No Return begins in this valley, with roadside pullouts, whitewater, and hot springs along the Stanley corridor.