Idaho and Washington, Spring, June 2008

[paulj]

I just completed a two week camping vacation in Idaho and Washington. For various reasons I stuck mostly to paved routes, with just a few side trips on gravel. A number of potential routes were still blocked by snow. We even encountered fresh snow on two passes (Lost Trail US93, Loup Loup WA20). The weather was mostly cool, with thunderstorms and two day long rain spells.

I have outlined points and the route segments on google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=109142004519224621996.00044f82f39a09c7ea112&ll=45.390735,-115.202637&spn=3.217092,6.448975&t=p&z=7

and put a preliminary cut of photos on picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajipanca/Idaho?authkey=AQ6654N9uig

The basic route was across Washington to Lewiston, ID,
Grangeville to Elk City, Red River Hot Springs and back
US95 through White Bird, Riggins to New Meadows
McCall area, Warren Wagon Rd
55 to Banks, then east to Stanley, Challis and Salmon
US93 to Missoula, 200 to Sandpoint ID
Priest River and Priest Lake area
across N Washington to Twisp and North Cascades

 

[HMR]

Awesome pics!

Some of my favorite places on Earth. I'll be riding most of that route next month. Hopefully the snow will be gone.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[paulj]

I had been planning on driving through the Blue Mountains, possibly from Tollgate to Troy OR, or from Pomeroy WA south, but with news of snow over the Memorial weekend, I just drove a bit into the hills south of Pomeroy before continuing to Lewiston

At Grangeville I decided to explore up the Elk City way a bit. We ended up camping two nights there. First was at Sing Lee off of ID 14, along a stretch of the historic Elk City Wagon Rd. While modern roads can travel along major rivers like the S fork of the Clearwater, early foot and wagon paths followed ridges and smaller valleys. This wagon road can still be driven during the summer. Spring melt was in full swing, so the meadow part of the campground was partly flooded.

The second night was at Bridge Ck, a small FS campground 0.4 miles from the commercial Red River Hot Springs. There were still a lot of snow patches in this area. We also had a fair amount of rain.

I looked at the start of the McGruder Corridor road (the 'Darby road'), which was still blocked by snow.

Elk City had a surprisingly good set of stores. In general I found that Idaho groceries had better prices and selection on things like eggs and inexpensive cuts of beef than comparable small towns in Oregon and Washington.

paulj

 

[paulj]

Back on US95, I took the old 95 road down to White Bird on the lower Salmon River, with a stop to hike a bit at the White Bird Battlefield. This is one of many Nez Perce Indian sites in the two states. We camped at a BLM campground, and drove a bit into the hills on the west side of the river. I decided not to drive down to Pittsburg Landing on the Snake.

Latter I enquired at a forest service station about the French Ck Rd that climbs out of the Salmon River valley east of Riggins, and was told that the road north of Burgdorf was still snowed in. We continued on to New Meadows and then McCall.

McCall, at 5000', still had signs of snow. The major state park there, Ponderosa, had to cancel all Memorial Day reservations because of snow. We had our most civilized (and expensive) camping here, and some good hikes in the park.

The next day was one of those all-day rain days. I spent part of it on the Warren Wagon Rd north of McCall. The first 20 miles are so are paved. I did not go far on the gravel branch to Warren since some of the culverts where showing water damage, and I didn't want to risk getting stuck on the otherside of a washed out culvert. I also turned back on the Burgdorf leg once I encountered scattered snow drifts.

Since they were predicting snow that night at the McCall elevation, I elected to continue south on 55 to Banks, and east toward Lowman. We camped at Hot Springs Camp ground, an open forest service site(3500'). Across the highway down by the river there was a shallow hot springs, which we skipped. A crew of day-trip river paddlers were camped nearby.

When snow is gone there is a lot of backcountry driving and camping in this area. The area is also noted for hot springs, both commerical, and free.

 

[paulj]

Continuing on to Stanley (ID 21) we stopped for a soak and lunch at Bonneville Hot Springs (free). With high water it was hard to find a soaking spot in the pools down by the creek, but we had the old bathhouse and its tub all to ourselves.

Stanley was not all that inviting this early in summer. The area looked like it was still awakening from winter.

We camped that night at Bonanza in the Yankee Fork gold mining district.

We skipped the dredge tour (operated from 1940-52, digging up 5 miles of river bed), but spent time at the Custer townsite. I also drove up to the Eightmile Ck point on the Custer Mortorway (another historic mining road), before turning back. With snow gone it is possible to drive all the way to Challis by this route.

We filled up on gas in Challis, ate lunch, and checked email at the library.

At this point I had to choose whether to backtrack and return via northern Oregon (Oxbow, Halfway, etc), or continue the loop to Salmon and beyond. Another option would have been to drop south to the Snake River plain, and explore some moutain sites from the south. I opted for the north loop.

 

[paulj]

We camped just north of Salmon at BLM Morgan Bar, a site on the Salmon river, complete with sun shelters.

We encountered snow showers at Lost Trail Pass (7000'). I opted not to visit another Nez Perce battlefield, Big Hole, some 15 miles east of the past on MT 43. We had a swim and lunch at Lost Trail Hot Springs, a commercial place a few miles north of the pass.

The rest of the drive to Missoula had a lot of cross winds from the storms that hung over the Bitterroot mountains. This route took us through Darby. From Hamilton north there was road construction, and a lot more traffic than we'd seen in a week.

Mt 200 along the Flathead and Clark Fork rivers was a nice drive, though we still had the rain and cross winds, and relatively few camping options. At 290 miles this was the longest day drive. We camped at Thompson Falls State Park, a relatively primitive state park (compared to neighboring states).

The host at the park directed us to the Graves Ck falls, some 3 miles up a forest road north of the highway. I continued on to snow at the 7 mile point. Without the snow I should have been able to continue to Vermillion Pass, and down the Vermillion river back to the highway.

This was another all-day rain day. We looped around Sandpoint a bit, but didn't stop. We did have a dry night at the COE campground at Priest River.

 

[paulj]

We then took a side trip north to Priest Lake. I tried to drive to the Granite Ck falls, but had to turn back at the 'shoe tree'. This route continues on to Metaline Washington.

We had a good hike to Upper Priest Lake from the Beaver Ck campground. That night we had the campground to ourselves - except for the hosts who were all too happy to talk about the damage Beaver Ck had done to the grounds when it overflowed a couple of weeks earlier.

The mountains here are the Selkirks, which are higher and more rugged in nearby British Columbia (in the Nelson and Kootenay Lake area). It is a promising area for canoe camping. I don't know about back roads exploration.

 

[paulj]

In Washington, I took Flowery Trail past the 49deg North ski area, and then a county road over another pass to Gifford on Lake Roosevelt (Columbia River). Here there is a small free ferry across the reservoir. Then it was across the Colville Indian Reservation to Nespelem.

With more scattered thunderstorms, I decided the best place to camp was a bit to the south by the Grand Coolee Dam, at Spring Canyon. This is a dry part of Washington, but we had a brief but vigorous thunderstorm that evening, and more rain during the night. In the morning we could see snow on some distant hill tops.

I drove back across the Colville Reservation, past Omak Lake to Okanogan, then WA 20 west. Loup Loup pass (4000') had 2" of fresh snow. We did some window shopping in Twisp (newly expanded Hank's grocery), and Winthrop (western themed town). Then it was over Washington Pass into the North Cascades.

We camped at the Nat Park service site at Newhallem, and hiked the surrounding temperate rain forest. Newhallem is also headquarters for Seattle City Power and Light, which has a 3 dam project on the Skagit River.

Then it was home along the Skagit and south on I5.

Everyone was commenting on how wet and cool it had been in Seattle, making it sound as though we had slightly better weather. We had rain, and snow, but also some sun.

paulj

 

[4Rescue]

Absolutely gorgeous mate. Great pics and awsome trip report. I love that area. I was kinda bummed when we decided not to go to Idaho on our river odssey this year.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Ursidae69]

One of the better sunset pictures I've seen, nice photography. :clapsmile

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Very Nice..........Paul!

I always enjoy your Trips~n~Pics............!:sombrero:

I was born in Washington...........it's my original home state.........and I love it!

Thanks for sharing!





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[kcowyo]

Quite the loop Paul.

Had to pull out the ID map to visualize your route. You made some excellent choices given the winter leftovers everywhere. Really makes me want to get back over to Stanley sometime. Good tips on the McCall area too.

:campfire: