Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 13, 2026

3152m

Twin Falls, ID

Cache Peak is the sky island in the southern Idaho deserts, not terribly far from the city of Twin Falls. This peak boasts over 1300 m prominence making it one of the most topographically significant objectives in the state. Mt. Independence is the second highest on the massive but it’s more approachable and sees more traffics. Peak-baggers usually aim to do these two peaks in the same outing. I noticed them on the Peakbagger app solely because of the prominence. I had very limited time to do research as it’s done mainly to break the monotonous drive coming back from Colorado. In the previous day I ascended Mt. Nebo in Utah and the plan was to camp at Cache Peak’s trail-head.

There are apparently several ways of doing this objective but for simplicity I opted to strictly follow Rob Woodall’s route. I trusted Rob that he had done his homework thoroughly and took the “easiest possible way” as he too did it as part of an extensive peak-bagging road trip. On a trip like this it’s crucial to minimize each outing’s physical effort to maximize the number of peaks bagged. The lengthy and contrived driving approach starts from the small village of Oakley to the west, and goes pretty much to City of Rocks before branching off to the north. The roads north of Finger Rock Campground were nowhere as smooth as I was hoping for. Rob gave them a “2WD” review but I disagreed. Perhaps the condition had deteriorated but as of 2026 one needs at least an AWD “crossover” to make do. I drove to the supposed 2WD trail-head in a rental Nissan Rogue and felt like I was pushing the vehicle a little bit.