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Everywhere I go I talk to people about the area, the wildlife, the birds, any interesting parks in the area. Idaho was no different. Jack told me about a drive through the Boise National Forest and the small town of Stanley at the Sawtooth Mountain range. Having a free afternoon, I’m sure you all know how I spent it.
The drive was jumpstarted as I passed through Idaho City, well actually the highway goes by Idaho City so I turned and went down Main Street to check out a true Old West town. They have preserved the Old West look to a point that I truly expected to see gunslingers step out of the alley at any moment. I stopped in the Idaho City Trading Post and found lots of locally made items. I couldn’t walk away from the old lariats that had been repurposed into a variety of vessels. There were vases and can holders, pencil holders, let your imagination run wild with what you could do with these swirled lariats with a history.
I continued on my drive and began to get into the mountains then what???? Elk! Lots of Elk. Apparently they were still down from the mountains for winter and they were everywhere. Scattered among the Elk every so often were a few deer. Now deer aren’t really something you would see and say “oh look how small they are”, but when they are standing next to an Elk, well they look really small. The Elk were shedding their winter coats and looked a bit in need of grooming and some of the males had started to sprout what will become massive antlers. There was even a radio-collared Elk. A call to the Fish and Game Department determined that this Elk is part of an on-going research project not only with the Elk but all game animals as well as wolves. Debbie explained to me that by monitoring the signal of the collar, they can follow the movement to help with studying weather affects on migration, migration patterns, etc., and when the signal stops, they go to retrieve the Elk. If the Elk has been harvested (taken by a hunter) that is documented but otherwise they are able to determine if the Elk died from disease or injury, and a host of other pieces of information are gathered. All in all the Elk sightings were very exciting to me.
Another thing I noticed was the sides of the mountains had what looked to me to be small terraces cut around them. Being from the South and accustomed to fields on slopes having terraces to help prevent erosion, I assumed it was a part of a program to cut erosion on the mountains. Although, they really were small. Then I discovered the source of the “terraces”. It was the wildlife, Elk in particular. Those were trails created by the movement of the Elk!
As I traveled higher and higher into the mountains the snow began to pile up, and get deeper, and it started snowing, and . . . what’s that sign ahead? “Avalanche Area Next 10 Miles – No Stopping” Are you serious? Don’t have to tell me twice! But I will admit I was driving slowly at one point with my window down so I could video the snow for which I was chastised by my daughter. I must say the scenery was absolutely beautiful and I wish I could have stopped in those areas because the amount of snow was amazing to me. But there were multiple warnings via signs as well as small rock slides that gave me an indication of what could happen. Some of the intriguing sights though were to see how the snow had melted away around the base of trees and rocks. My thought on that would be that the tree or rock had absorbed enough heat from the sun to start melting the snow that was touching it, but the sun wasn’t hot enough yet to begin the overall melt.
How deep was the snow you might ask? Well check out the photos and look for the one with a small view of the top of a shelter. I say a small view of the top of the shelter because that’s about all you can see from the snow piled in front of the shelter and most amazing the snow on top of the shelter.
As I came out of the Boise National Forest it was almost like I entered a huge flat bowl. There was fence on each side of the highway but I was only able to tell that by the tops of the posts showing through the blanket of white. And off to my right was the Sawtooth Mountain Range. Like most mountain ranges, the name was very apropos. Barely visible under the heavy clouds were the jagged mountain tops, looking like the teeth on a saw blade.
Stanley is the kind of town that I would love to go and spend a few days. Very small, one of those everybody knows your name type of towns. Being located between the Sawtooth Mountain Range and the Salmon River of No Return, it is a recreational paradise. Stopping in what looked to be the only store open, I found all sorts of fly-fishing paraphernalia which made me think my son Bryan would absolutely LOVE coming here. I’m not sure if the streets are actually paved when the town isn’t covered in snow (yes, in April it still looked like the dead of winter here), but today the streets all looked like well maintained dirt roads of the south.
By now it was getting late in the day so I backtracked my way back toward Boise but turned in Lowman (turned and stopped to let three Elk decide which side of the road they wanted to be on) and took a different path. Small country road took me through a valley and I encountered yet another warning. This time not to watch for avalanches but instead, flashing lights warned me of “Critical Winter Range – Deer Crossing Next 4 Miles”. I think it should have said Elk because it was almost like riding through a cattle farm. I attempted to count them but gave up. Absolutely incredible!
And did I mention that before this fantastic day, I also got to see Golden Eagles and a Northern Pygmy Owl on one of my afternoon rides?
It’s a beautiful country we live in. There is so much to see and experience, we just have to get off those sofas, away from the Wii and the computer (well, after you finish checking out the photos from this trip) and explore. Don’t forget to grab that camera, no matter what type you have, because there’s always something to capture so that you can share it with others!
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