Salmon River Scenic Byway

Here's one more attempt at a stitch. This is Little Redfish Lake again.

We stopped for a while to enjoy the view at Redfish Lake, the big brother to the lake you see above. This was a bustling area with picnic sites, campgrounds and lots of boats. There were even a few people sunning themselves on the beach!

By this time we were all hungry for some lunch so we drove a few miles further north to Lower Stanley, Idaho. This was prime flyfishing and rafting country much like the Gallatin River area near Big Sky. There were more than a few rafting companies and fishing outfitters here and we ate lunch at one of these places. (The restaurant was connected to the rafting company business.) Out of curiosity I asked how the rafting was right now and it sounded like it was more of a float with a few decent rapids here and there.

I toyed with the idea of an afternoon raft trip but the kids were not super-eager and we had many miles to go to reach Salmon, Idaho, our general destination for a campground tonight.

Route 75 followed the Salmon River along the northern edge of the Sawtooth NRA. This was a fantastic drive. Jim would have been dying to stop at every other pullout to toss his line in the river. We saw many fishermen along this stretch of road.

Gradually the Salmon River grew larger as we headed north from Challis on Route 93. As we got lower in elevation and emerged from the Sawtooth area the landscape became something more like southern Utah!! This was serious semi-desert now!!

Here's a series of three photographs taken from the driver's seat:

We made it to Salmon by late afternoon and drove a bit north of town to find a campground. We stopped at one beneath a large cliff between the road and the river and found out that Capt. William Clark had camped here with a part of his group during the Lewis & Clark journey west. Sacagawea was also born in a nearby area south of Salmon. Lots of interesting history here.

Despite the interesting thought of sleeping in the same location as William Clark we decided to check out another campground on the other side of the river. This campground was much nicer and we had the place to ourselves far away from the main road. For a whopping $5 we set up camp in the best site right next to the river. There were cottonwoods all around us and the tent site was set right beneath them. We'd be able to hear the river flowing outside as we fell asleep.

Here's a photo of our tent site: