Weaving through Idaho (8/1/24)

 

Idaho has a lot of scenic drives and back byways, and by the time we manage to get across the state, we will have driven on most of them. Not really, but we are definitely taking the road less traveled.

Our backroad travel took us to the small town of Challis, where we took a day trip along a historic road that was used to run supplies from towns to mining camps. Now it’s called Challis National Forest.  We veered onto small side roads to explore, whenever we felt like it.

There are several mining towns along this route- most have been allowed to fall to ruin, but Custer City has been partially restored and is an interpretive area. In the 1800s this was a thriving area, but the decline in the quality of the ore caused the mine to closed permanently in 1904.

Each building describes who lived there or what it was used for. It always boggles my mind when we are in these very remote places and we see a sign that says “General Store”.

Paul always gets excited and says “ Oh boy, ice cream!”.  And sure enough they usually do sell ice cream. This place was no exception. Homemade ice cream, made fresh that morning. Price? Whatever you want to donate.

A new complication has been added to our summer travels. In addition to dodging the heat, we now have to dodge all the wildfires.

At least 2-3 times a day I check numerous websites for updated fire information.

Google maps now has two overlays that are actually helpful. One shows the smoke and air quality, and the other shows the location of the wildfires. In addition to Google, I check the federal website for fire and smoke activity, and individual states’  departments of transportation websites, checking for road closures.

In this particular area we had to give up on visiting the Stanley ID area due to an active wildfire.

Instead, we found a place in Council ID, further north and west. The road we took to get there follows the Payette River, and leads to Payette Lake. We stopped several times along this scenic road to check out the river.

My new favorite overlay for my GPS app (GaiaGPS) is the NatGeo Trails Illustrated map- it showed us the names of all the rapids on the river, and as we drove by we could look for them, and sometimes stop to get a better look.

This river has many Class VI rapids- pretty much too dangerous for rafting. One of our guides this summer said that rapids are not classified by how “big” they are, but by how hurt you would get if you fell out of the raft.

Our first day in town was busy- after hiking 3 miles along a creek, we drove into the small town of McCall for lunch. Being on a lake, this is definitely a resort/vacation town. We had lunch at the brewery overlooking the water before driving around the lake.

There are quite a few beachy areas to swim- most of which were extremely crowded due to the heat. We did blow up our tubes and float around for an hour or so though. No pictures because I left my waterproof camera in the camper. It was nice to cool off.

The following day, our last day in Council, we headed up the hill to Council Peak to hike. Even at elevation, it was still hot. It is an 8 mile hike but we just did two miles up, then two miles back. Although we only saw a couple of deer and a grouse, we had fun trying to identify all the hoof prints on the trail.

After leaving Council, we headed briefly into Oregon, via Hell’s Canyon Scenic Byway.

We have driven this road before, on our way to Alaska in 2014. It is the deepest river gorge in North America.

We also stopped at an interpretive center for the Oregon Trail, and soon realized we had also been Here before. That’s ok, we always learn something new.

 

Our destination is La Grande Oregon, where Northwoods Manufacturing builds Arctic Fox campers and trailers.  Our camper is a 2018 Arctic Fox. We took a tour of the facility, which lasted a little over an hour, and left Paul reasonably impressed with the build quality of their RVs.

When we arrived at the RV park in La Grande, we were surprised to learn that the highway had been closed the day before, due to a nearby wildfire. 

It was obviously open when we came through, although evidence of the wildfires was everywhere.

While driving through town we noticed more than a hundred 18 wheelers parked along the side roads and off ramps. 

Turns out the highway was closed again. In fact, they closed more of the highway in this area because the small towns were “full”  and couldn’t handle any more big rigs parking in their towns.