Nez Perce County High Point Trip Report
Date: June 9, 2000
Author: Barney Metz
Leaving Lewiston, head south out of town on the Waha Road. This will run all the way to the small
community of Waha. Along this path you will pass various intersecting roads, stay on the main and
obvious road. After passing the Waha Bar and Grill (really a pretty good place to grab a burger and a
beer), you will start climbing and in less than a 3 miles you should pass Waha Lake on your right.
Another 1/2 mile and the road turns to gravel. Continue on this road until you come to a fork in the road.
The road to the left leads to Soldiers Meadows Reservoir, stay to the right and the road now becomes the
Zaza Road. You will travel this road for 10+ miles. Sights you should pass are the Deer Creek Gravel
Pits and then the turn off for Eagle Creek Road, this turn off is marked very well. Continue past this sign
and you will head west for a few miles and the road will head south. Continue on this road (still the Zaza
Road) until you come to some very old corrals and one old cabin that has now fallen in on itself. These
corrals are not marked, but they are the Old Madden Corrals.
There is a road to the right which goes right between the cabin and the corrals, this is where you want to
go. You will head up and down this road several miles and you will pass the very well marked entrance to
the Garden Creek Ranch which is owned by the Nature Conservancy and the BLM. Access is open to all
non-motorized activities. Fifty feet past this spot is a parking space on the right hand side of the road, for
a longer hike park here and start heading up. We drove down the road a little farther and found some
more areas to park in off to the left.
We parked there and hiked up to the initial area that we thought was the summit, but you have to follow
the gradually sloping ridge north to the summit. Once you get to the top there is a very distinctive high
point. We built a cairn there, my daughter insisted on the pole in the middle of it, but the pile should
stand for a while. Back at the point and on the road past the Garden Creek Ranch are some spectacular
views into the Salmon River (you can't actually see the river). Also, if you look closely, you can see into
Hells Canyon and can spot the Seven Devils, which is the county highpoints for Idaho County.
We did not encounter any wildlife, but if you do this in the heat of the summer, buzzworms would be a
possibility. There had been a bear sometimes up at the top, flipping rocks and eating grubs and leaving
his mark.