Monday Sep 18, 2023 - Anaconda MT to Stanley ID

OK, Idaho, you impressed us today. We got kind of a late start since Milo slept late (8:00) after turning in at 10 pm so, yeah, 10 hours of sleep. This van is a sleep machine. We did all of our van fluid stuff at the RV Campground next to the hot springs place and then decided to stop at the nearest city, Anaconda, and get caught up with WiFi. We did a run through town and back to see how healthy things looked in this former booming copper mining town, and they have a lot of home town proud going on here, but they also have a lot of the classic post industrial decay going on. You can tell they were once thriving during the copper boom but once the mine closes, that’s it. The smelter stack still stands on a nearby hill overlooking the town and they have groomed the waste piles and covered them with grass so they look like normal hills but they are too perfectly shaped to be a real hill.

We took a small cross lots road, Rt 569, which wiggled up and over a small flat pass until we came to Rt 43. We turned the wrong way, east, and figured it out  20 minutes later, did a U-turn and headed back west on Rt 43, made the turn in the town of Wisdom, then stopped at the Big Hole National Battlefield. On this spot in 1877 the U.S. Army slaughtered a group of Nez Perce Indians. My brother did a lot of Lewis and Clark research and the Nez Perce were some of the friendlier Indians at the time, but in the late 1800’s, an Indian was an Indian and we were not so PC about dealing with them. But it is nice that we have memorials to remind ourselves of how carried away we humans are capable of getting.

Nicest pit toilet of the trip!

At the end of Rt 43 we crossed back into Idaho and hit Rt 93 which goes north and south, and we also start following the Salmon River. Here started the hour after hour spectacular vistas. Wow, just wow. It was mostly sunny all day with a few clouds in the afternoon, but not much traffic, lots of pull off opportunities, lots of BLM or Forest Service services like picnic areas, campgrounds, rest stops, fishing access, etc. And lots of fishermen out in the Salmon River mostly fly fishing. By the end of the day I was ready to learn to fish.

Like discovering Rt 395 in California, we felt like we’d entered a secret place in this central part of Idaho,

We stopped in the town of Salmon and picked up some literature about this area from the visitor center, then walked up and down the main street of this population 3000 or so town. Deb checked TripAdvisor and the JunkYard Bistro was #1 and they were open (Mondays are iffy in tourist towns). Had a great lunch and peppered the hostess with questions.

From Salmon we continued through more twisting vistas until Challis, where we scored some great maps and info at the Forest Service Ranger office. Then we turned onto Rt 75, since we wanted to end up down near Ketchum, ID where Sun Valley ski resort is. We saw some pulloffs with cars and surmised that there were hot springs (Sunbeam) that the Forest Service Ranger told us about. We found a young couple laying in one of many hot pools that people had built with rocks. The CCC back in the depression had built some buildings and stone stairs that were pretty much still intact. We may have to come back depending on what we find later closer to our as yet to be determined campsite. They said the Point Campground near Redfish Lodge (where they were staying) sounded good, and we ended up scoring a site there. The sign said they were full but we drove through anyway and found one or two empty sites. The campground host told Deb there were empty sites but they gave up on trying to keep the sign up to date. 

So here we are on Redfish Lake next to Redfish Lodge for $12 a night. There is a day use area with a sandy beach and lots of hiking opportunities so we may stay a couple days. The host said he might have another site available and the folks next to us with a site even closer to the lakefront might be leaving tomorrow so stay tuned.

We were pretty full still from our late lunch so chips, salsa and a couple of sandwiches for dinner. Off to bed to get my next 10 hours of sleep!!