From Antelope Valley road, we turned right on Forest Service road FS-135, heading for Copper Basin.
At the Antelope GS (Guard Station), FS-135 heads north up Bear Creek and Cherry Creek, then reaches windswept Antelope Pass. The stretch of this road that climbs to Antelope Pass is narrow, winding, rutted, and can be very slick after rain. A 4WD is recommended. (Idaho: A Climbing Guide: Climbs, Scrambles, and Hikes (Climbing Guides)
by Tom Lopez)
Heading toward Cherry Creek Summit:
Crossing Bear Creek Summit:
There were several aspen groves along the way:
Antelope Pass looking back at the road we had just driven up:
Antelope Pass, looking ahead into Copper Basin.
Roughly triangular in shape, the central core of Copper Basin is an approximately 20,000-acre expanse of rolling sagebrush steppe, drained by the East Fork of the Big Lost River, Star Hope Creek, and numerous other named and unnamed waterways. Prairie potholes and erratic boulders near the valley’s heart are a reminder of the earth-shaping glaciers that once covered all of this land. (Copper Basin by Jason Kauffman, Sun Valley Guide, Summer 2007)
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any more photos of Copper Basin. We were driving through, on our way to Wildhorse Creek and, looking back, I wish we had done the Copper Basin Loop Road and gotten more pictures of this area.
