Find Nearby Peaks

Climbing and access information for this peak is on Page 86 of the book. Ben Nickell provided a 2026 update set out below which contains a lot of good road and trail information as well as photos. Updated August 2026

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Rhodes Peak is not only one of the nicest peaks in the northern Bitterroots but is also a 2,000 foot prominence peak and is the high point of Clearwater County. As a result, it sees more ascents than many of its neighboring peaks, as county high pointers and prominence baggers seek it out. Access and hiking distances make this a challenging ascent. As a bonus, you can also bag Blacklead Peak, Williams Peak and Peak 7699 along the way. USGS Rhodes Peak

Access by Ken Jones

On US-12 in Idaho, find FSR-569 on the North Side. This point is roughly 10-15 miles west of Lolo Pass and the Montana border or roughly 70 miles east of Lowell, ID. It is just east of the turnoff to Powell Campground and Guard Station. Reset your odometer here. Follow FSR-569 (ignoring spurs on both sides of the road) to Papoose Saddle (7.0 miles). Continue straight ahead at the 4-way intersection onto westbound FSR-500. In approximately 12 miles (at Cayuse Junction), turn right onto FSR-581. In just over a mile (21.2 mile point) at a switchback in the valley bottom, you will find a parking area and the start of FST-35.

This looks like a good possible route on the map, but we were unable to find its upper end the way we went, so I don’t recommend it. Instead, continue on FSR-581 for another 6 1/4 miles to the saddle at 6,715 feet. The road is suitable for passenger vehicles to this point. Turn right and follow the steeper (high-clearance recommended) road up over Blacklead Mountain and down to the saddle on its North Ridge (my topo doesn’t show the extension of the road from the summit to the saddle, but it’s there on the ground), about another 1.5 miles. Park here.

South Ridge, Class 2 by Ken Jones

There are several trails leaving from the parking area. Take the one heading east, which drops into a basin. In about 3/4 mile, there is a junction. Keep left on the trail that generally contours between 6,400-6,600 feet for another 1-3/4 miles to Goat Lake. The mapped junction of FST-248 was not there, though we looked. The trail splits at Goat Lake, but the branches come together again soon. At the switchback on the West Side of Williams Peak, the trail joins an old mining road.

It peters out a bit where it crosses the South Ridge of Williams Peak, but occasional cairns will get you to obvious trail where it drops off the ridge to the northeast. At about 5 miles from the parking area, you’ll reach an unmapped trail junction in the saddle just east of Point 7038. Bear left and follow the now-steeper trail as it climbs to the saddle just south of Rhodes Peak. Easy cross-country travel, some on a use trail, will bring you to the summit and its register. Round-trip stats: about 12 miles with 3,200 feet of elevation gain.

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Rhodes Peak 2026 Trip Report by Ben Nickell

Rhodes Peak had been our list for a while. Getting there is the real challenge. We actually made an earlier attempt in June while returning from a North Idaho county highpoint trip. Snow drifts and downed trees stopped us before we even reached the trailhead, so we had to turn around after a few hours of struggling and hit the nearby hot springs.

For this August attempt, we watched the weather and road conditions closely. It is about 6½ hours from home just to reach the turnoff from Scenic Highway 12, followed by another 27 miles of forest roads to the trailhead. Be prepared with saws, a chainsaw, shovel, a small portable jump starter and recovery gear. Always monitor the weather and road conditions as this is very remote country. We were fortunate to get an assist from a local let us know that the extensive winter blowdown had been cleared.

The driving route from US-12 followed FR 569 / Parachute Hill Road FR 500 the Lolo Motorway to Cayuse Junction. The we took FR 581 and FR 581C to the trailhead. The last section was the roughest. It required AWD, high clearance, and very slow driving. The 27 miles to the trailhead took more than two hours.

We camped near the trailhead finally started hiking around 7:00 a.m. Someone had also done a lot of work clearing the trail to Goat Lake and added some log Bridges over a swampy area.

Beyond Goat Lake, the trail became much more challenging. It was heavily overgrown and sometimes difficult to follow. In places there was only a faint shelf through the vegetation. The trail would disappear around fallen trees or when crossing open areas, and we would have to stop and search for it again. Small cairns placed by previous hikers helped in several places.

We picked what looked like the best weather window, but around 10:00 a.m. we encountered a thunderstorm with rain and nearby thunder. Fortunately, the storm moved away, the skies cleared, and the rest of the day gave us some great views through the Clearwater mountains.

At the summit, the register showed just how few people make it out here. There had been no entries since September 2025, only two entries in all of 2025, and we were the first entry of 2026.

Strava recorded 14.44 miles and 2,727 feet of gain, with 7:55 moving time, but that doesn’t really tell the story. We left the trailhead around 7:00 a.m. and got back around 6:00 p.m. There were lots of breaks, route finding, and slow sections that simply didn’t count as moving time.

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Terry Rowe 2018 Photos

A few photos by Terri Rowe from her September 2018 ascent of Rhodes Peak and Williams Peak.