Aneroid Lake via Wallowa East Fork Trail - 9/7/2025
Aneroid Lake via East Fork Wallowa Trail
Today I woke up once again at 4am to drive two hours from Lewiston Idaho to the Wallowa Lake area near Joseph Oregon. Last week I hiked up to Ice Lake, and this time my goal was to reach Aneroid Lake via East Fork Wallowa Trail. I reached the trailhead at 8am, and there was plenty of parking, and didn't have to park a quarter mile down the road like last time. I filled out the little permit slip, and made my way up the trail to Aneroid Lake.
The majority of the hike was under tree cover, with a steady easy incline. The weather was absolutely perfect, with random cloud cover. Being one of the first hikers on trail for morning meant that I was running into a lot of spider webs. There was also a lot of water, and mud on the trail. I tried going around the mud, but eventually I just gave up. There was enough water that I could just rinse the mud off my shoes as I hiked.
When I reach Aneroid Lake it started raining, but that only lasted about 5 minutes, and then the sun came out. The map on AllTrails ends the trail pretty much right when you get to the lake. I did a little of trail finding, and made my way down to water where I met a very friendly family doing some fishing and paddling on the water. The woman explained to me that her husband actually owns some of the land near the lake, and that they do some of the trail maintenance. She showed me a path that would take me around the perimeter of the lake. It wasn't exactly a path, but more of a suggestion of a path. It ended up being fun and I made my way completely around the lake. Before leaving I hung out and had a few more snacks by the water. I pretty much had the entire lake all to myself.
For the return trip from the lake I did a bit of trail running, and made it back to the car quickly.
