Jefferson County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: July 28, 2009
Author: Adam Helman

note: All coordinates employ the WGS84 datum.
This effort was part of a larger journey collecting Idaho, Montana, and Washington county highpoints in late July and August 2009.

This highpoint can be combined with Madison and Teton Counties by remaining east on FR218 for some ten miles - so obviating a return to the paved road grid in-between.

For Kelly Mountain, the key road junction with FR218 lies at 6,230 feet. Immediately southwest is a large parking area; and with coordinates (43.63876° N, 111.60907° W) at 6,188 feet is a dirt road taken 0.1 mile farther southwest to a locked gate on the right.

From there, follow the Brekhus'es directions in this report. I simply crossed the road, following the steeper ATV tracks until about 6,600 feet.

Stay straight (don't go left) at (43.63411° N, 111.61627° W), elevation 6,631 feet. I turned left, as it was a 50/50 guess, and had to eventually bushwhack thickly until magically encountering a road well above where it reaches the top of the ski lift noted. Saw a bull elk during the bushwhack. Impressive. He immediately ran off.

I ran much of the road leading to the twin highpoint contours - this was my first effort of a long journey and was "bursting" with energy.