Monday July 25, Near Salmon ID

We are just loving our travels in Idaho, and really feel that it would rate up there with one of the best states we have visited. The scenery is truly majestic and there is a real wilderness feel to it.

This morning we continued East and climbed the Banner Summit at 7000 feet, the country just opened up into beautiful meadow plains. Rivers wound through the pasture and the Sawtooth mountain range, still with snow rose up above. Enough to take your breathe away. There were quite large numbers of cattle grazing, obviously brought up in the summer as this area is covered in snow for many many months.

The very small town of Stanley sits in the centre of the area, in the summer a centre for mountain biking, and white water rafting and then a winter sport venue. It sort of had a wild west feel to it, the town streets unsealed and boardwalks in front of the handful of shops. Speaking to the lady in the information centre and she said that it is one of the coldest places in USA and interestingly reading the newspaper today, on Saturday it had the coldest low in the country, which was below freezing.

Talking about temperatures, it seems the whole country is in a heat wave and we are really noticing it. After very pleasant morning temps they just climb in the afternoons and once again today it was in the high 30’s, which is higher than usual for this area. They had twice the amount of snow over the winter and it really didn’t start to warm up until early July, about a month later than normal…and now this. Strange weather patterns.

Leaving Stanley we followed the upper reaches of the Salmon River winding through the fields for some distance but then we hit real desert like areas with dramatic moonlike landscape. We wound through the valley with huge spectacular rock mountains rising up. Around every corner I was going WOW.

We passed through the small town of Challis that was an early mining town, and now is just a service centre for the vast surrounding area. It was almost 6pm when we found a Bureau of Land Management Campsite (BLM) on the river. There was a bit of road noise but at least we could park under trees to feel a little cooler. Ended up running the generator for the air conditioner, as even too hot to sit outside.