Lots to see and do in Idaho!

We stayed at The Meadows RV park for the 3 nights of Labor Day weekend, waiting for the crowds to subside. The park was full of RVs, lined up right next to each other like on a city street--not our favorite type of RV park. (This is the only RV place with full hookups in the Ketchum area.) One good thing about this place is that a nice bike trail and the Big Wood River--one of the rivers on Jack's list to fish while here--run right by the campground, so that was convenient. We walked down to the river access and Jack fished for several hours while Carol took photos and did some birdwatching. At first, nothing seemed to be biting, but then he got into a hole where he got a few strikes. He had one fish on, but it broke off. He'll be fishing this river again. It's a picture-perfect trout river. It started raining right at the time he quit fishing and we made it back to the RoadTrek just before the downpour. It rained most of the night, and when we got up in the morning there was a dusting of snow on the hill in front of the campground! It disappeared quickly, but Brrrrr.....

I fished and fished and fished. Nary a strike. 

In the last hole with a heavy crosswind I had several strikes on a small mayfly. 

Finally one broke my 7x leader as it started to rain.

We left The Meadows on Monday with the plan being to drive a big rectangular loop of scenic byways and see some of the spectacular sights of the area, while scouting out likely fishing and camping spots. The central Idaho scenery is amazing--it changes so rapidly, you never know what's going to be around the next bend: lava flows and volcanic craters, peaceful ranches set against beautiful mountains, 12,000-ft high snow-covered peaks, lakes, tumbling rivers--they got it all! The first scenic byway is called the Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway. We stopped at a fishing outfitters about 40 miles down the road and Jack talked to a knowledgeable guy about different fishing spots. He decides to hire a guide to fish a couple of the streams, as they can be tricky, especially the famous Silver Creek. So he's set to fish on Friday with Andrew, who happens to be from Virginia and is a Virginia Tech grad!

We continue on our way and get to Craters of the Moon National Monument visitor center in late afternoon. We watch a couple of their movies and Carol gets her National Park Passport book stamped. This place is filled with lava fields, spatter cones and cinder cones from numerous volcanic eruptions over eons. We spend the night at the Craters of the Moon KOA--one of the nicer KOAs we've stayed at. Idaho people in general seem nicer than average, and the woman who owns and runs this KOA is a good example. She provides a FREE yummy waffle and coffee breakfast to her campers! We never had a free breakfast at a KOA before--free coffee, maybe.

Mountains in the sky? Look closely and you will see the tops of the mountains looming ahead.

We depart Tuesday morning, continuing on our scenic drive--and it lives up to its name. The mountains keep getting bigger and more spectacular, with many snow-covered peaks coming into view. We stop at the sign for Mount Borah, the tallest peak in Idaho. They had a major earthquake in this area in 1983--apparently the whole valley sunk 9 feet and the mountain rose 6 inches! Quite a bit of damage was done to some of the small towns in the area. There were 2 deaths--two kids walking to school and a building fell on them. Very sad.

Snow-covered mountains.

Mount Borah, the tallest in Idaho. Facts below.

A major earthquake in 1983, that sank the road we were driving on by 9 feet.

And raised the highest mountain in Idaho another half-foot.

One weird and somewhat unsettling thing about driving this section of the Byway: within about 10 minutes we had TWO rocks hit our windshield and leave chips/cracks. One of them went all the way through the window and left a few glass shards on the dashboard! When we were talking about this to a guy at a fishing outfitter in the next town, Challis, he said, "Welcome to Idaho!" (We decided to hold off getting these fixed till we get out of Idaho...)

Heading into Challis, we saw a sign for "Challis Hot Springs: B&B and RV Camping" -- sounded like the place for us! After doing some provisioning in Challis, we headed back to the Hot Springs. What a lovely spot! It's a ranch that's been here since the 1870s. They have two pools, one hotter than the other, sitting over a hot springs. The water is contained in concrete pools inside a wooden structure, but the bottom is nice, rounded, small river rocks that feel good on your feet. Lovely place to soak! We met two couples while soaking and chatted for a long time. Our campsite was by the Salmon River, so Jack went down to fish for a while when we got there, but didn't catch any. He was ready to declare "no fish in this stretch of the river" but then an osprey, or some kind of fish hawk, flew overhead with a nice size trout in its talons. So there. Had a quiet night and then another quick soak in the morning before leaving on Wed. morning. Hated to leave this peaceful spot!

Our campsite with no one around and the Salmon River on the right.

A calm spot in the Salmon River looking upstream.

The fantastic Challis hot spring pool with a cobblestone bottom. 

At about 101 degrees, it was very hard to get out of this pool.

The drive just kept getting more and more scenic! Jack stopped at a few likely streams to scout for trout. Our goal for the day was Redfish Lake, which has several nice campgrounds. The name "Redfish" comes from the sockeye salmon which used to migrate from the ocean into the lake in such numbers that the lake turned red (the male salmon turn bright red during breeding). They are endangered now but attempts are being made to bring them back in larger numbers, which seem to be somewhat successful. The Sawtooth Mountains forming the background of the lake are jagged, glacier-carved mountains--spectacular! These are glacial lakes up here, beautifully clear. We secured a campsite along the lake and then drove down to the nearby Fish Hatchery, which is central in the effort to bring back both the sockeye and the native chinook salmon to the lakes and streams here. We saw salmon spawning in the Salmon River which runs by the hatchery--also some dead salmon in the water. They die after spawning--after making an incredible 900+ mile journey from the Pacific, including getting past 8 dams on the way.

Carol in the morning at Redfish Lake.

Salmon spawning in the the river.

Had a peaceful night and then went back to the hatchery in the morning to see them release salmon from their traps. The hatchery already has their quota for this year, but they are still measuring and weighing the salmon coming through their weir, and moving them upstream to spawn. These are some huge and beautiful fish. Salmon fishing used to be a big thing in Idaho many years ago, but then construction, dam-building and other environmental tragedies took their toll--one year in the 1970s only one salmon returned here. They called him Lonesome Larry. But then some folks got motivated and came up with ways to repopulate and hopefully salmon will be returning in greater and greater numbers!

The trap is opened at 9 AM. 

One ranger climbs into the trap and nets each salmon, one at a time.

The one jumping doesn't like the net.

The netted salmon is passed to another ranger who weighs it and determines its sex.

 The female ranger on the left records this information.

The ranger shows us the salmon before placing it into another holding tank.

One ranger even let us pet a salmon.

We backtracked a little after our salmon adventures, as Carol wanted to try out another hot springs, called Sunbeam hot springs. Hot spring water at 140 degrees pours out of the mountainside into the Salmon River. Folks have rearranged river rocks to form pools at various temperatures. A lovely place to soak, very different from the Challis developed pools, but equally refreshing and relaxing! W then drive back south toward Ketchum, passing through the rustic little western town of Stanley.

Carol waving in the riverside hot spring. The Salmon River roars by in the background.

Wonder what the salmon think of this as they swim upriver?

The countryside around the little town of Stanley, Idaho, north of Ketchum. LOTS of log houses and buildings here!

We drove through Ketchum this afternoon and ate a very delicious hamburger, but the town looks a little too "yuppified" for our tastes. Lots of rich people here. We continued on down toward the fly shop where Jack will meet his guide tomorrow, and we're camping in a free campground at another fish hatchery right now. Tomorrow, Jack goes to the Graduate School of Flyfishing -- Silver Creek.

Beaver dam on the upper reaches of the Wood River, About 20 miles north of Ketchum.