44Hunter45 2021 public’s lands road trip

[44hunter45]

I will post a few pics. When I get back to the computers. I think it’s a PITA from the iPhone.

Route:

Potlatch ID down US 95 to Riggins.
glassed this bull WAY far off. You can see his white pedicles (sp?). Then on to New Meadows, turn right for the west route down 95. Hit 84 South to Twin Falls. US 93 South to Ely, NV for the first overnight.


If you face just right so that you cannot see any modern vehicles at the Ely station, you are transported back in time to 1890.

This brings us to the morning of day 2

 

[44hunter45]

Day 2. Ely NV to Caliente NV. Over the desert from Caliente to Bunkerville. The land of Cliven Bundy. Politics aside. You have to be a tough SOB to thrive in this country.

For those who has never seen one. The arrow is a 1920’s airmail navigation marker. There is a whole culture of folks who geolocate these things.

 

[44hunter45]

Day two continues

After Bunkerville, we hit I15 SW to Las Vegas and on to US 93 S to my family in Arizona.

 

[44hunter45]

Day's 3-5

In Arizona with family. We traveled down to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson.

Day 3 Evening I made the best elk steaks I have ever done, Hank Shaw style. Brown before rub, rub, finish to 120°F in the oven.

 

[44hunter45]

Day 5 Left at noon from Sun City Arizona Hwy 17 to Camp Verde, Then over to Sedona, up and over 89A to Flagstaff, Then 89A again to Kanab, UT. for the night. Every gate to Grand Canyon NP had closed signs. We passed into Edward Abbey country by-passing Page and cutting over Navajo Bridge near Lee's Ferry and up over the Kaibab.

 

[44hunter45]

Day 6. Kanab to Idaho Falls.

We went through Zion and I'm sad to say there were no pictures taken. The park was beautiful and I'm glad folks are using it. The crowds were insane. We circled the visitor's center parking for almost 30 minutes to get a spot. 15 minutes in and out to get Miss T a Junior Ranger patch and a ball cap. They no longer allow auto traffic tot he favorite spots and you have to rid a shuttle bus. Access to TH use was limited to lottery. We did not see any wildlife, but given the mass if humanity, I not surprised. We broke out to Cedar City for lunch and a powder crawl stop at Sportsman's. (No powder found anywhere on this trip. ) We then took off overland for Great Basin NP on the Nevada-Utah border. You start on UT-130 NW and end up on UT-21. Along the way we stopped at Parowan Gap Petroglyphs.

On to Great Basin NP. One of my favorites. We had a Griswold moment when a young ranger poked his head out the door of the Visitor's Center to tell us they were closed.
Check the website or call. There is no road signage telling you of closures.

On to Ely and US93 North. We blew through Wells and pushed on to Jackpot, NV. After a week of sunshine we drove into rain showers for the first time. It was still early, so we decided to push on to Idaho. We took a short cut on county roads bypassing Twin Falls and came out on I-84 east. by now it was full dark. We pushed on to Idaho Falls, arriving at the Holiday Inn late in a blinding rainstorm.

End of day 6

 

[44hunter45]

Day 7 Idaho Falls, ID to Salmon, ID

Slept in a bit Saturday morning and opened the shades in the hotel to find it was snowing. Big Wet Spring Snowflakes.
We decided we need a farmer's breakfast and went to Smitty's Pancake & Steak House in IF. Smitty's ranks as good as The Breakfast Club in Moscow, ID. We loved it.

Took a tourist pic of the "Falls". SMDH when folks decide they can make nature better with concrete. If I was a salmon who somehow made it through all the lower Snake River dams and found this, I'd be ready to go all George Hayduke.


Well fed, we hit US-20 NW to Arco, Saw these critters south of INL and got a digi-scope.



After Arco, we did a quick run up US20 to Lost River, before deciding we didn't want to make the quick run to Challis, but wanted to see Creaters of the Moon and show my son Sodom & Gomorrah in Ketchum.



Back on US20 west we passed through the Craters of the Moon.



US20 hits US75 just South of Bellevue,ID. We turned north through Hailey and Ketchum. The snow began again nd most of the tops of the Sawtooth Range was socked in for the rest of the day. The top of the Sawtooth divide is one of my favorite overlooks. We stop for a pit stop and pic, then on to the Salmon River drainage. My youngest was once featured in the U of I Argonaut as the "Barefoot Man of U of I" This is the obligatory flip flops in the snow pic.


TheThe headwaters of the Salmon. Near Sawtooth City. Then on to Stanley, and Challis.

Near Challis

At Challis we decide that neither of us wants to set up camp and be cold in a tent all night. We push on to Salmon.
Between Challis and Salmon we finally spot some sheep.


We made it to Salmon before nightfall, got a room at the Trumper 8 Motel. The manager gave us a long dissertation and told us how he wished he had been able to go to DC on Jan 6th. The in room TV only plays Fox News. (JK!).

The end of day 7

 

[Southern Elk]

Cool pictures. What day of the week did you visit Zion? I hear it's crazy on the weekends, but it is absolutely beautiful.

We always try to get over to Salmon every summer. I really like that area.

 

[44hunter45]

Cool pictures. What day of the week did you visit Zion? I hear it's crazy on the weekends, but it is absolutely beautiful.

We always try to get over to Salmon every summer. I really like that area.

That would have been Friday.

 

[Dave N]

Did part of that same trip a few years ago. Grand Canyon obviously open pre-covid, but ate at the same joint in Idaho Falls and stayed at the same motel in Salmon! Carry on.

 

[44hunter45]

Day 8 Salmon Idaho to home over Lolo Pass.
Stopped in Missoula for lunch at the Montana Club.


Ok - so not wild. But who can pass on a Bison pic?
These kids get worn out by too much time in the truck.

The Lochsa running high.

Three Rivers Resort at the, Where the Selway and Lochsa meet to form the Middle Fork of the Clearwater. I summered on the Selway as a kid. Lots of memories. It all seems, just , LESS, now. The upstairs used to be one of the finest steakhouses around back in the day. All the resorts and eateries along the Middle Fork have suffered in the last decades.
Finally. Our local whitetails celebrating us home.
8 days, 5 states, 2600 miles. Steely Dan, Beethoven, Carl Orff , George Gershwin, Aaron Copeland, and lots more for tunes. The Pima Aircraft Museum. Hours of practicing my public lands speeches on the kid. (no wonder he nodded off!)

Memories made.