Idaho - Day 19 - the drive to Challis

Pioneer Motel & RV Park, Challis
Tuesday, 19 July 2022

Today's drive, according to Google, wouldn't even take as long as 2 hours, so we didn't get on the road until 10:00, after Dext got 2 walks and a stint in the Kamp K9 park.

today's route

The main point of today's route was to go by Mt. Borah, Idaho's tallest point.  According to online information, I'd drive almost right by it and a historical marker about it.  So off we went.

A sign told me I was on the Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway.  Well, I'd seen the craters (those of the moon), and I was heading toward the peaks.

At Moore, pop. 179, I found this sign, which wasn't one I'd ever seen before.

I learned that King Mountain is 10,612' high and would normally be known as a climbing site.  But it has 2 well-known and popular launch sites for hang gliders, and that's what's made it famous.  I couldn't find an uncopyrighted photo of it online and didn't take one myself.

Also in town I saw a poster saying "Ammon Bundy for Governor."  It was the first of 2 that I saw today.  I was curious to know if he'd survived a primary fight and learned that he didn't have one.  He's running as an Independent.  He's opposed by a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, and a member of the Constitution party - all 4 of whom survived primary challenges.  That's a lot of candidates.

I passed a mining operation for U.S. Calcium, which is working on a large field of limestone.

I've been surprised to find LDS churches even in very small towns in Idaho.

I passed 2 "Farmers for Trump" signs.

Mackay, pop. 517, bills its Mackay Rodeo as "Idaho's Wildest Rodeo."  The town stretches out so far along the road that I think I saw the homes of all 517 residents.

A sign told me I was in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.  This forest is where the Moose Fire is currently blazing.  The fire is farther north than where I'll be going, and I'm glad I hadn't made plans (which I'd thought of doing).

I passed the Mackay Dam and the large long Mackay Reservoir, where lots of RVs were boondocking along the bank, apparently for fishing.  And I passed the Mackay Fish Hatchery, so good guess.

I passed a historical marker titled "Goddin's River."  The original Goddin was an Iroquois explorer who came to this area with beaver trappers.  Once the beaver had been wiped out (as usual for this country), people forgot the original name.  In recent times, the river is called the Lost River, more specifically the Big Lost River.  I've crossed it several times this morning, and have learned it got its name because it doesn't flow into another river but instead sinks into the underground source that supplies the Snake River.

Suddenly, the check engine light started flashing, the first time it's come on since last Thursday.  Too bad.  I'd been hoping it had reset itself.

For much of the drive I've been seeing the mountains of the Lost River Range off my right side.  Then I saw a sign pointing toward Leatherman Peak.  Well, I hadn't heard about it so didn't understand why it deserved its own sign, but I now know that at 12,228', it's the 2nd highest point in Idaho.

I was barely going 60 mph in a 65 mph zone because I wanted to see things.  But I've been noticing that Idaho doesn't give advance notice of most of their informational signs so I'm missing them.  For instance, I passed an old cabin with 2 signs beside it, though I have no idea what the story is with the cabin.  And I passed multiple signs that seemed to be about waterfowl in that area - but I was already almost past them before I realized they were there.  This road is fine, but it's only 2 lanes with no shoulder, and it's a main traffic artery for this region, so it's impossible even to think about stopping and backing up to read some signs.  I wish Idaho would assume passers-by wanted to know what they were willing to tell.

And then we came to a pullout area for Mount Borah, which was my goal.

Mt. Borah, Idaho's tallest peak

Pictures I found online show that it's really pretty when it's got snow on it, which may be fairly often since it's 12,662' tall.

At the same pullout, I found this historical marker about an earthquake fault that's nearby.  A sign directed me 2.5 miles down a gravel road to see this site described below.

The sign called it "Earthquake Fault Site Scenic Attraction."  Apparently there are more signs there explaining what happened to the land from this earthquake (and 1983 wasn't that long ago) which I would have liked to see, but I've had my fill of Idaho's gravel roads so decided to save it for another trip.

Instead, Dexter and I walked a short way down the road (Dext prefers paved roads; the rocks seem to hurt his feet) and I got a couple of photos of a nearby farm.

Farming in the desert looks like hard work to me.

This is an example of those windbreaks
I've been seeing around houses.

A little farther down the road, we came to Willow Creek Summit, 7,160'.  This is definitely some high desert around here.

In a field I saw 2 horses facing each other with their heads close to each other.  And in the shadow between their heads I saw a small colt.

I passed a sign that said I was entering the Challis Herd Management Area.  The "herd" that's being managed are wild horses and the Bureau of Land Management has more than 150,000 acres included in this management area.  

A separate sign nearby said I was also entering the Challis Experimental Stewardship Area.  That's a program from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, and in this area multiple government agencies have worked together in sponsoring demonstration plantings of a range of plants they hope can help rehabilitate rangeland and wildlife habitat.  The plantings were done in the early 1980s and success varied depending on the amount of rainfall in the different areas tested (no surprise).

A sign told me I was entering Grand View Canyon, which I hadn't heard of and still can't find much information for online.  My search keeps getting confused with the town of that name and with Hell's Canyon, so I still don't know how deep this canyon is.  The road, which was about a mile long in this area, curves (many times) and goes downhill (northbound) with 2 lanes and no shoulder, so it felt a little claustrophobic at times.  I don't know how on earth they built that road.

This photo below doesn't show it at all - the canyon with its rock walls going straight up.  Instead, this is the only place I could find to pull off and take a photo of the rock.  Just around that curve, the road drops some more and the walls close back in.

I passed lots of farmland, mostly grain and a little canola.  Cows and horses - lots of grazing land.  I passed a sign for Challis Hot Springs 5 miles down a side road.

Then, coming into the town of Challis, I crossed the Salmon River and the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park, just on the edge of town.  I think the park got its name from a tributary of the Salmon River, and that was named by a party of Montana gold prospectors.  They hadn't found any gold here but decided to name the tributary Yankee Fork because all those prospectors were Yankees.  I suppose that's a good reason, though I'm not sure why later Idahoans decided to keep it.

There wasn't a sign for Challis, but I was curious and learned that its population in 2020 was 1,127 and its elevation is 5,253' (almost a mile up).  The town's name is pronounced like "the chalice from the palace (has the brew that is true)," dialog from that wonderful old Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury movie The Court Jester.

Tonight's campsite was behind a motel, and when I called for the reservation they told me that it was really more of a motel and the campground wasn't particularly professional, though they had all the usual amenities.  I chose them over the town's other campground because this one was in town, which would give Dext and me some place to walk to.  And it turned out fine.

Here are some photos from town.

St. Louise Catholic Church

bristling with communications

a mural of the "Fourth of July parade 1898"

This poster was on the front
door of the Masonic lodge.

And this is the Masonic Lodge.

Certainly there was more to the town than this, but it seemed really hot so Dext and I came back to the RV.  It wasn't forecast to get more than 92° and that climate is certainly dry, so I'm not sure why it seemed so hot, but it did.

Today was my momma's birthday and I was missing the family that I didn't have any more (including Gracie), so I called the family I still have and had a nice talk with David and Anna.  They said it was 109° in Dallas today - and it's been like that for days and is expected to continue for a while.  They said they'd been to visit my cousin Angie who's been in the hospital for several weeks now with some serious health problems, and reported that she's finally doing better, which is encouraging.  Sometimes it's hard to be so far from family, though you'd think I'd be used to it after living for 31 years in Alaska and Washington.  Maybe it feels different because I'm older.