Hoodoo Peak

Hoodoo Peak provides a princely portal to the tiara of the Sawtooth Ridge, which stretches north to Purple Pass high above Lake Chelan, and south to the end of the divide at the Navarre Peaks. Located at the head of East Fork Buttermilk Creek, Hoodoo is a great blocky mound with an extended northwest slope. Raven Ridge, a spur just southeast of Hoodoo, surpasses it in height. Nonetheless, at 8464 feet Hoodoo is one of the major summits in the region. The straightforward and quick approach makes a scramble of Hoodoo an amiable day trip to a major peak in the Lake Chelan–Sawtooth Wilderness. But for the scrambler who seeks a longer span of solitude, Libby Lake affords a dramatic overnight camp. Because the trail is so steep in places as to be a notorious horse-killer, Libby Lake is not plagued with the residue of horse packers as are other nearby lakes in the district. Nestled beneath the cliffs of the confluence of the spurs of Raven Ridge and Hoodoo Peak, the tarn displays massive rockslides on three sides and giant larch trees on the fourth. Hoodoo makes a striking trip in early October when the larch needles flicker with shades of yellow and gold. But the flowers of early July are brilliant as well, for those who crave a variety of color.