We got up and had Cream of Wheat for breakfast.  Just what we need after yesterdays huge feast. 

This is the scene heading into Stanley from the East. Just 6 miles from our present campground. We ate breakfast Sunday in Stanley. The Sawtooth mountains are breathtaking in real life. A picture doesn't do justice. 

We thought  (I mean I) like to scout ahead and see where we can find a campsite, so it is not a big deal when we are pulling the 5er. Who wants to pull off in a campground road and find NO turnarounds. And we are worried about closed campgrounds this time of year.  Well quite a day we had... We found a campground acceptable, just short of Lowman.  Also we pulled into several small boondocking sites that just would not hold our 5er,  so as I like to do, we pressed on, and went all the way over to Banks to keep checking things out.  This is another canyon high road between Lowman and points west. Did not expect what we ran into. 

Above is part of the high canyon road west Lowman toward Banks, ID. Not may places to camp along this stretch of road that goes on for many miles. 

We did find this on this canyon bluff campground (Kirkhan) just before Lowman which might be our next stop. Notice the hot springs lower center, places to soak, with deep pools for fishing below. You can soak and fish at the same time. Terry found a small hot spring just down from where we are now and did soak in it and it helped his aching back very much he sez. Tonight he even wore this bathing suit under his waders. How cool is that. So this may be the place. It would be a central location just a couple of miles from Lowman so we could drive down HW 21 to Idaho City to check out the city without the 5er and see if the road is suitable for us to pull over. Some say we should not go this route and others tell no problem. Se we want to scout it our in advance. Otherwise we will have to take HW 55 and from what we saw today, west from Lowman is no picnic either. We have heard and read much about Idaho City, so would like to see it and will, even it we can't pull the 5er to it. 

Not a road map (couldn't find a small map to fit the page) of the routes but you can tell this is one hell of a high country and the roads sort of follow the rivers. Refresher: We went from Stanley (northwest around and down to Lowman to west of Crouch today looking for campsites and a way out of here. Some sections have closing gate arms and chain up stations so you know we went from above about at 7000 ft west of Stanley to 3000 ft at Crouch. So you know what the road must be like if you have ever gone up and down like this in elevation in just a few miles. BUT this is why we are here and if we take it slow we can have the time of our lives. We just need to be careful as we did have brake problems in Wyoming. 

On Tuesday we are taking the day off and staying right here in this campground (which looks better every day as we scout out others). We hae been burning lots of diesel (we paid $2.99 in Garden Valley, the lowest in a long time and this is way out of the way where the prices should be high. Stanely is $3.29)  Terry sez he is going to clean out the PU and the 5er bedroom as we can hardly find our way around for the dirty clothes. So a day relaxing in the campground, as we sort of know what our travel plans are for the next few days.  Also gives me time to Google Earth and search points west. This living fulltime and traveling in a RV is hard work don't ya know. 

I did post this on the RV.NET forum. What do you think?

We are in central ID, want to be in Quartzsite about Nov 1 
We are in central ID (north of Boise fishing the Salmon river close to Stanley, ID right now) and don't want to be in Quartzsite till Nov 1 so where do we go from here? On into OR but where. We orig thought about slowly going down US HW 395 through central CA. Any ideas? 

Thursdayday  Sept. 13
by your roving reporter Terry 
 

Time flies when you are having fun,  here it's Thursday allready and not a post since Monday. We have used the time to catch up on chores, and move to a new campground.

Tuesday I took a bit of time to clean out the pickup, rearrange the basement compartment, and in the afternoon to do laundry.  There was a nice Pizza place/laundromat in Stanley, and we loaded up the machines, and ordered lunch.  About the time that the pizza arrived the washers were done and everything loaded into the dryers.  The Pizza was very good,  and very reasonably priced.  The crust was crispy just like Ron wants it.  Back at the trailer a bit of stowing and cleaning and we were set for the day.

Wednesday we hit the road for a couple of hours and are now in the Kirkham campground just west of Lowman, ID.  As moves go it was a short day, a long climb to the pass and a few 6% grades going down but nothing to worry about.  We did notice one of the rear dually tires is getting a bit bald, and we are thinking about chinging it out with the spare.  We will probably have to get a set of tires some time this winter in Yuma or Phoenix,  one of those purschases you hate to make, but know you have to do it.  We will wait for a good sale though. 

Kirkham campground is also a very large hot spring.  there are pools to soak down by the river, and up in the campground.  The water here is supposed to be about 104 deg F as it comes from the ground.  There are a couple of other springs in the Kirkham group that are hotter,  supposidly about 140 deg.  I have gotten to like soaking in the hot spring over at our last campground and after trying to fish in the South fork of the Payette river I got my chance to soak.

All along the left hill side are hot springs pouring down. The bubbling springs are a refreshing sound.

Fishing the Payette river was a little on the tough side.  The first hurdle is to find suitable water,  as most of the time the river is in a very deep canyon and running very fast and very deep.  I did find a pool just above the campground that wasn't quite as fast as the rest of the river, and was able to catch and release on fish. 

Today we explored hW 21 south to Idaho City then on in to Boise.  HW 21 from Lowman to Idaho city goes where no road should go.  With no natural route to follow the builders blasted and bulldozed the best rout that they could.  The result,  a long convoluted route to the top of the mountain and back down. I do not think there are more then a couple of places with straightaways of more then a couple hundred yards, and lots of switchbacks,  some time you get to see three sections of the road as it winds back and forth accros the mountain face.

We made Idaho City about noon and decided to head on into Boise.  We had to take a chair back to Cabela's, as it was defedctive, and after getting lost in traffic and snarled up in lane changes we were able to get there about 1:00.  With the chair exchanged we then went bck east on I 84 to get fuel at the Flying J.  Of course we got snarled up in the wrong lane and had to work our way back to Flying J.  While there we picked up a sandwich for lunch and headed for the Grocery store.  We had seen a large Albertson's on the way in and wanted to stock up in a bigger city hoping for more reasonable prices.  Should have gone to Wally world.

Ron here... The trip from our campground just east of Lowman to Boise is about (on HW 21) 75 miles. so you figure the round trip miles, over the most switchback road we have ever been on. So you know HH (happy hour) was a treat tonight. Why we do this to ourselves, I don't know, we need to slow down and take it 10 miles at a time.  Do you think we will, Hell NO.  I guess we are caught up in our main web site slogan. 
The restless urge to see new territory, and find what is beyond the curve in the road ahead. 

Back on the road we went back to Idaho City,  and were suprised to find a real town just off of the Hwy.  Many of the older buildings have been restored and retained from the gold rush era  and now contain ice cream joints, gift shops, a rock shop etc.  We stoped at the rock shop for a bit, but I did not find any interesting materials.  The owner faceted all of his own stones and had some very nice things, but no lapidary rough.

Idaho City

Ron here 
Cleaning up Terrys post as I sent him off fishing. Here he is coming back last night.

We plan to head west on HW 55 to Horseshoe Bend and HW 52 to Ontario. Instead of going south on HW 21 from Lowman. We have driven from Lowmam to Banks on the Wildlife Canyon Scneic Byway and it is winding  high up over steep canyons BUT a good road without switchbacks and NO 6% grades.  Don't know what HW 55 will be like with the recent fires and falling junk on the roadway. But has to be better than HW 21!!! We for now plan to head out across OR on HW 26 and see where it takes us. The coast or where???

There is a county park just outside of Vale...  Bully Creek Reservoir  (see it in blue above) we found on  www.free campgrounds .com Our first sort of free stop to chart our way across the great state of Oregon. 

Description: Bully Creek Dam and Reservoir (Vale Project) are on the Bully Creek about 8 miles northwest of the Creek`s confluence with the Malheur River. Forested areas at the reservoir provide opportunities for viewing migrating birds. In the spring, fall, and winter you may see loons, grebes, ducks, and hawks. Nearby a red rock formation sometimes harbors Rock Wrens and Golden Eagles. Reservoir is 985 surface acres with 7 miles of shoreline. Paved access to the dam. Available fish species include smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rainbow, and black crappie. The reservoir is used as a resting place by migratory waterfowl with some ducks remaining to nest. Sparse vegetative cover of sagebrush and grass provides habitat for small mammals and birds.
 

We have been to Boise and no need to go back. We have been out in the wild, and do not need to venture to a big city anytime soon again. Stay tuned as we have not researched this section of our trip and will be doing it by the seat of our pants, as the say.

Don't get us wrong, we may have some concerns about pulling a big 5er on some of these roads, it is a great area to camp and fish to your hearts content... so if you are thinking about a central Idaho vacation, or trip  DO IT! Just take it slow and enjoy.

So for tomorrow it is to get to Vale, OR and find Bully Creek Res. and LAND for the night.

Friday  Sept. 14

We kept on driving and landed in John Day, OR in the fairgrounds campground. 
Now trying to figure where to head next.... Yes it is the weekend and we know we should hold up and wait it out but we don't find a lot of traffic so will move on, on Sat. Might get to Sisters, OR. They have city RV park for $9.  We will post much more when we get more time.  We spent a couple of hours in a FS campground today trying to get a Satellite sig through the huge Yellow pines. Yes... we gave up and rushed over here to the fairgrounds.  A little grumpy but doing OK.  We were also invaded by chipmunks in our last campground stop with one eating inside our 5er (tried to chew into a bag of cookies left out last night) and when we stopped at 75 miles down the road in Oregon at a stop sign, one popped up out of the PU hood and sat on the windshield wiper and looked at me.  I yelled at Terry to get out and get him OFF our truck. I was afraid it would go back inside the engine compartment. I don't need wires being chewed on by Chipmunks. We stopped at Wall Mart and got traps. We shall see.  Pics later.....

Sunday  Sept. 16

We have landed at South Beach state park on the coast just south of Newpost, OR.  We couldn't get a satellite signal at Sisters City campground last night. So expect a big blog later tonight.