Sapphire Mountains

Elk Mountain is a short scramble off a good US Forest Service road.  The scramble is mostly on a ridge through an old clearcut that has in places heavy ceanothus brush.  Wood ticks can be abundant in the spring. 

There are scattered trees on the summit to suspend wire antennas.

At the parking area there is a game trail paralleling and on the north side of an old skid road.  It provides good access through the ceanothuse bush field after it crosses the old skid trail.  From there it is a steeper scramble to the summit. 

At less than 4 miles of good road off Highway 93, Sula Peak is a popular ‘travelers’ summit for drive-up VHF DN25/DN35 and SOTA activations.  A modern US Forest lookout and a communications facility occupy the summit.  Frequently there are bighorn sheep grazing in the area and especially in the spring on the highway. 

We selected the southern route for Elk Point.  This southern route allows for a double activation with Sula Peak W7M/RC-138. This mostly open-ridgeline route has good views of distant Bitterroot Mountains, Anaconda Pintler Mountains and closer views of the Sapphire Mountains and East Fork Bitterroot River valley.  

Access from the north is via the Robbins Gulch or Rye Creek roads and trails. 

Cinnabar Point is currently a mature lodgepole forest on a rolling summit.  In the 1980s the summit sported a dilapidated pole tower structure that may have been used as a lookout, but has since fallen and rotted.  It is an easy mountain bike ride up a permanently closed road and then a short climbing trail to an off-trail gradual assent to the summit.