Teapot Dome is located in central Idaho, just north of Mountain Home. It is found on the southern fringe of the Bennett Mountain Hills, and offers great views of Bennett as well as the expansive Snake River Plain to the south. It was also a notable landmark for early settlers on the Oregon Trail. This is desert terrain, so best to go in spring to avoid the heat and rattle snakes.

It was a nice spring day, and I was able to talk my wife and one of my sons into getting out for a short hike up Teapot Dome. We made the hour drive from Boise, and parked on Teapot Road. We picked a spot, just over two miles from the highway, and roughly due west from the highpoint.

We followed a somewhat faint two-track trail/road about a half mile across the flats to the base of Teapot Dome. From here, my son and I scouted out various scramble routes up through the basalt cliffs, and my wife took a less challenging route up grassy slopes.

For my son and I, there were numerous scrambling opportunities, and we sought out the most challenging ones we could safely do. After about a half dozen “pitches”, we crested the ridge and then finished the hike together on our way east to the summit.

From the summit, we enjoyed great views of Bennett Mountain to the north, still partially covered in snow. And we also soaked in the views of the wide open Snake River Plain to the south. On the way down, we took the “standard route” down grassy slopes to the flats, and then retraced our path back to the truck. Round trip was just under 3 miles and 900’ of elevation gain in a leisurely 2 hours.

Map of our route. Just under 3 miles and 900' gain round trip.	Start of the hike.	About to get interesting.	Contemplating the first scramble.	Hmmmm, pretty fun.
We had an audience.	Exploring a small cave.	Lots of scrambling opportunities.	Having fun.	This section was harder than it looked.
Walking across the summit ridge.	Snake River Plain to the south.	Group shot on the summit.	Bennett Mountain to the north.	Making our way down.
Map of our route. Just under 3 miles and 900' gain round trip.Start of the hike.About to get interesting.Contemplating the first scramble.Hmmmm, pretty fun.We had an audience.Exploring a small cave.Lots of scrambling opportunities.Having fun.This section was harder than it looked.Walking across the summit ridge.Snake River Plain to the south.Group shot on the summit.Bennett Mountain to the north.Making our way down.