It's Sunday, time to move on down the road. 

We wanted to move a little more north so to position ourselves better for the holiday weekend coming up. 
Fulltimers like to land early in the week so they can withstand the crush of campers who are out big time during this time. 

So in that vein we moved to a new campground for a day or two, so we could explore the Salmon River west of North Fork, ID. We did that today by moving from Tendoy to a BLM site north of Salmon.

We landed between Carmen and North Fork at a BLM site  Tower Rock.

Another low cost BLM campground which is paved and very nice, but has no water. 
We are equipped for such things so not a bother. 

We think we have found a couple of sites west of North Fork that are right on the Salmon River, where we can hide out in for the week, and Terry can fish on great waters. Also the Forest service has installed a free dump station with potable water on this road. How nice of them. It is on FS 0030 road right going west of North Fork off of HW 93 heading to Shoup.

Rainy day in Idaho today. It gives you a different perspective. A wet and wild feel, me thinks. 

Salmon River west of North Fork, ID

Right along the road this critter would not move and was right next to us and I took this out the window. 

And in our current BLM campground we have a nest to watch. 

So we will watch the weather and see what it brings in the morning. May stay right here for another day so Terry can fish. Then get settled for the holiday weekend upcoming. 
 

Saturday Aug. 28

We drove the Lewis and Clark Byway on Friday. 

They use the term Adventure Road for good reason as you shalll see. 

The above map is from The Lewis and Clark Back Country Byway and Adventure Road  a BLM .pdf pamphlet. 
A very slick and high class production.  A mile by mile guide of the route and the history of the area. 
A must read if I do say so. Just click on it and be amazed.

Another read all about it site   National Park Service site.   Lemhi Pass

This is a circle drive and the best way is to go clockwise up the Warm Spring road past the Sharkey Hot Springs 
and later back down the Agency Creek road. 

 The going up on Warm Springs road, as it is a little wider. It just goes up and up. 

After passing through miles of high Pine forest following the divide (see the map above) we came to Lemhi Pass. Strange we had to go down to get to it from the north Warm Springs route.

Now for the going down the Agency Creek road part of the drive. 

The Agency Creek road has 20% grades. I found it easier going down than up, thank you. Thanks to reading that hint on the guide sites. 
I would not have been a happy camper coming up on this road, me thingks. Going down was bad enough. I had the truck in 1st gear and still had to ride the brakes. 

We met a pickup coming up going mad out of hell right after a blind switch back as he roared right past us. I pulled as far to the right as I could on a very narrow stretch on a sheer drop-off to hell section.  Some young kid who still had the idea he was invincible, me thinks. 

This is where we had to get to as the road below went along the creek down for miles. 

If you have been following along you know about the hot springs in the area I talked about. 
After the drive we went back to the springs for a hot soak to calm the drivers nerves. Mine.

Another file photo. You didn't think you were going to see us running around in bathing suits in the picture did you.
We had a good soak and I even think the bone spur in my shoulder is doing a bit better. 
This is a nice clean well maintained site by the BLM.  A $1 fee to enjoy this site is a bargain. 
Thank you big government. A little comment as I recover from my soothing soak. 
This site deteriorated and was closed for many years till the BLM revived and improved it with local support.
Now it is a gem without private interests taking control of it.
Repeating the  Sharkey Hot Springs BLM link from a prior post. 
 
 

Thursday Aug. 26

We have moved on. And what a pull it turned out to be. 

We left Henry's Lake and up to Ennis on HW 2876 and on west through Virginia City and on up to Twin Bridges and then down to Dillon. What a convoluted route, but that's the way the terrain dictates. We are in the west and not going across Nebraska after all.

We did stop in Ennis  WY to dump at a local RV park for $6 and get supplies at the local grocery. Terry would have liked to stay here for the night and roam this first rate trourist trap, that it has become. But I was driving so we pressed on as it was just noon after all. 
Our plan was after study to head over to Dillon and then down to the Clark Reservoir and go west on MT 324 and up and over the Divide to ID. I found this route looking at the online maps. As you can see below it shows a nice highway. We wondered why there was no traffic but we pressed on as this would be a huge shortcut to ID and the Lemhi river and some nice BLM campgrounds on that river. 

The larger white line is the Continual Divide. Route 324 comes from the northeast on the little yellow line from the green valley that Lewis and Clark came up. More on that later. 
You can see on the map and Google was looking good till we got closer and the blacktop turned to gravel. We had gone for so many miles so how do we turn back now. It would mean hundreds of miles to back track. WE PRESSED ON.

At the pass on what turned out to be a pretty good gravel road we got a look down on the other side. Remember this s the Continual Divide after all and we are pulling our home on wheels. (Flash forward when I did open the 5er door I did find a few things that had washborded around on the inside... but no damage.) 

 Now on the down side of the pass. What were we in for, we didn't know ,but with our home behind us we headed on down. What else could we do now.... 

 At last on the back side to where the road on the Idaho side turned back to a solid surface. 
We later stopped at the the Forest Service office in Salmon on a day trip, and told them how we were fooled into believing that the road over the pass was blacktop.  They just smiled back and said,  "That is a little confusing, isn't it". 

Later after getting back in the valley and on HW 28 we found our planned BLM campground. A whole 5 site campground including the empty host site. But open with a good view for our Satellite to get online. and for only $5 (we put on our Senior Pass number and paid $2.50. 

Now just look at the great site we found.  Sure as fulltimers you see the cement pad and say this must be a handicap site but we could not find a sign to that effect and when we got here we were the only ones here so we took it.  The sun angle was good so we would not have to face it IN the heat of the day. We are at  McFarland BLM Campground 

It's still warm as in hot as we got here and still today.  The weather forcast calls for cooler temps the next few days.  We shall see what we shall see. Bump and grind and move on, me thinks. We don't want to rush the cooler temps as we have extended time to explore the Idaho area, so a day or two of hot is good, much better than cool and getting colder. That will happen soon enough... 

Today Thurday we explored further onward on our projected route to our next campground. We went up to Salmon ID and looked 
over the town. They are having a County Fair and Rodeo this weekend. The BLM sites north of the town could fill up befopre we can get to them and there are only one or two sites we could fit into. Each campground has only about 5 sites like the BLM campground we are in now. So we are thinking of staying right here and driving the Lewis and Clark Byway and see if we can do a good soak at the local hot spring. Oh I didn't tell you about springs here did I. 

web file photo

This is maintained by the BLM and has a $1 fee to use. How nice. This is just up the road from us and you know how Terry likes his hot springs. When we stopped by others where there so we didn't plunge in.  We said later...`

The hot spring is right up the back road from the Your Are Here on the map. 
See the National Scenic Byways web site  Lewis and Clark Back Country Byway

Also see the BLM web site about the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and Back country Byway

This could be more like the Sawtell road up to the FAA radar we climbed up over in Island Park ID. You remember my rant about that day trip. More later as we see just what we want to do in the next few days. We have no schedule. 

All this info is so if you are in the locations we explore, you will not need to do any research on your own.  Just blindly follow our path, and you too, can get into the same amount of trouble we do. 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday Aug. 24

At day trip to Yellowstone.

Entering at West Yellowstone on Monday we took a counter clockwise route around the park. 
The NPS link to the Yellowstone Park info. 

Firehole Canyon 

We did pull into Old Faithfull and did a drive-by. Could see it was not even close to erupting as no people standing around waiting, so on we went. 

This at the pass. Who would think it could be possible at 8200 feet.

 

Heading back up the east side.

Hayden Valley above is our most liked section of the park. 

This is in the Tower Falls section of the park.

The bridge leading to Mammoth and the north entrance. You go to the left to get to Mammoth. You are looking east. 

What a way to tour the park this would be, me thinks. Parked at the Mammoth Hotel

Heading south and up from Mammoth toward the  Norris Geyser area. 
Extensive road work is being done this year. Look at the wall being built. 
This will last for years, after all this is our first National Park. What pride they must have in their work.

And of course the critter pictures. 

In order to get all the way around the park we didn't take time to explore each treasure in detail. We have done that in the past. Just a fun day driving tour to remind us of the grandeur of nature's wonder. 

Sunday Aug. 22

Rain and more rain...  but a day trip was still on order. 

At 7 PM Sunday we still have light rain, but should stop later tonight.
Forcast is for Sunny and warm the next three days... We shall see. 

So off to West Yellowstone for brunch. 

file photo from the web

I did a search and found Running Bear Pancake House on the west side of town had good reviews so we stopped. 
We decided on the chicken fried steak with hash browns, two eggs and toast. That was item #8 on the breakfast menu, not ordered ala carte. We had to settle without the gravy as the cook scorched it. It was still very good and WAY too much food. But we did eat it all except for the toast. Look at the size of the steak. Under it was more hash browns. The two eggs and toast was what made it over the top for too much food. Decaf coffee came with it's own carafe. The service was so very friendly and accommodating.  We don't go out to eat often, but when we do I like to tip well. Servers work hard and ours did a great job. 
 

While in town we also stopped at  Do It Best Hardware to pick up a small tarp and to get something to cover our Honda 3000i generator to protect it from the rain while running it at night. While traveling we can just cover it with plastic. After I told them what I wanted to accomplish they offered to just gave us a 2X4 piece of plywood for free. How cool. Good people who are customer friendly. We covered it temporarily with a black garbage bag for tonight. Will rework this idea in days to come. Might screw it to 2X4 boards so we can place it on top when needed and while in travel lay it in the truck bed. Raised it up a bit in front to make sure the exhaust wouldn't cause a problem with the covering. My thinks that will not be needed in the finial design. 

Later after the stop at the hardware store Terry did the tourist thing and walked the shops. 

 Most places were not busy. There were six employees in the Outfitters place trying to look busy. 
We shall see if that is so when in the next few days we take drives into Yellowstone as the weather is to clear up and be perfect.

He didn't buy anything. When we find somthing we want we just get it but a Been There Done That T-shirt not so fast. 

Next we headed up north out of West Yellowstone checking campgrounds along the way for future reference as we went. On over west on HW 287 to Earthquake Lake and then back down HW 87 to our home on Henry's Lake. 
 

Great views on every turn. It was overcast with a sun burst from time to time, so get over the picture quality. 
This is real life as we know it. 

A campsite just for you with great views at Beaver Creek campground along the Madison river up from the Earthquake Lake. 
Now these sites are up from the river shore a long way. You have to hike down to fish. And in bear country, so beware. 

Another map so you can follow along. 

View toward the Earthquake slide that created this lake. This was in 1959. You can see the trees that are now under water from it. 
A couple of links to read more about it all. Wikipedia   and  All Yellowstone

Now right past the Earthquake Lake the Madison River takes a dramatic drop back down the the valley heading north again. 

Coming back down to the west from Eaerhquake lake.  The river runs right next to the road on the lest side. As we go west in short order we hit HW 89 and head back to our FREE county campground at Henry's lake. 

We are so much enjoying this area. We have been here several times as in a vacation mode, as they say in a past life, but now we have the time to explore it more fully. When we move on down the road it will be on our own schedule. 
Not to worry... Hitch Itch will get to us soon. 
 

Friday Aug. 20

Moved on to Henry's Lake campground. 
Updated with new pictures and content at 9 PM Friday. 

Here I go again, this campground is FREE for 15 days. No services but what do you want for free. We talked to the host who has working to improve this park for at least 20 years now.  We are about 20 miles west of West Yellowstone.

Our site like all others overlooks the lake and surrounding mountains. 

Views from our campsite.

We needed firewood so off to the FS road to Red Rock Pass. The above shot is the road going up to the pass from the east side just up from our campground. Just look at that view looking south. Sawtell Peak is the one on the left. More on that below. 

The white line is the Continental Divide in the Google Earth view. 
And the while line below Sawtell Peak is the road I drove the other day. As I said in the prior post I will never do that again. 

It goes on and on forever. 

Heading back up to the pass from the west.

A great drive and lots of firewood to be gathered. 

Oh and so much easier to saw it up since we took a quick day trip to Bozeman to Lowe's thuis week and picked up this handy electric chain saw. At these altitudes it was a lot of work using a hand held saw. Not me, I mean Terry. This electric one just plugs into our on board Honda 3000i with a 40 ft cord and, a sawing we will go. We did tighten up the chain a little later after its first use. 
It was only $49.95 plus extra replacement chain and oil. I had had a Montgomery Ward cheap electric like this one, years ago and even used it to cut railroad ties when I built a patio on my first home.. So I knew even a low cost small one would work for what we wanted. 

So many of these are large. This is very small and fits in our truck bed storage box. So as we are on day trips we can just whip it out and saw some firewood. That's the ticket, me thinks. At about $50 bucks... a bargain.

Back at the campsite Terry finishes up the sawing cutting it up in smaller sections. On the back roads he cuts them just so they will fit in the truck bed.  Later he did split some of the cut up pieces so they would burn better. But after you get a fire going a non split log burns just fine.  The saw was built for a right handed person me thinks, but Terry endured and did his thing.  Nice shot don't ya think. 
Not  a pose he was busy cutting wood. 

I just had to include this better shot of him fly fishing the other day. He is better at fishing than he is at cutting wood. 
But he does one, so he can do the other... 
 
 

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