July 5 - 7, 2020:
I’m heading on route 20 east with a lot of traffic, mostly RV’s and trucks pulling boats or ATV’s. It soon becomes very scenic country as you climb uphill over a couple of mountain passes. I’m in no hurry, traveling slightly under the speed limit, everyone else on the road is in a hurry it seems, traveling well over the speed limit. I don’t know why, but people driving large RV’s, especially Toy haulers and people towing boats seem to drive recklessly fast. So, I’m cruising along when this man towing a boat decides he must get around me, pulls next to me with a car approaching in the opposite direction, then decides he doesn’t have enough distance, slams on his brakes, whips back behind me narrowly avoiding a head on collision and narrowly missing me.
I like to stop at all the roadside historical signs, but never fail there is usually someone right on your tail when you want to brake and exit. Needless to say, I wasn’t having a good driving day. I stopped to read a roadside signs about the Camas Valley, original homeland of the Bannock and Paiute tribes who subsisted largely on the Camas root which grow wild here. The tribes originally were promised this area, but when settlers wanted the land as it’s good for farming, the treaty was nullified. The tribes fought overt this in the Bannock War but were over powered and defeated. Today this wide flat fertile valley and is covered in hay fields. I took a 10 mile loop road through the Camas Prairie Centenial Marsh which is set aside as a wildlife, mostly birds, nature preserve.
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| They are raking in the hay these days |
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| A sad commentary |
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| Happy cows with nice pasture land, but there days are numbers |
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| I saw lots of birds, even a owl on a fence post, but hard to get a photo |
I also exited the highway at Fairfield, Idaho to check it out and found it to be a beautiful town with a flag draped Main street, it was just 4th of July. This town is doing very well as a ski area and other recreational adventures are located about 12 miles away.
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| Everything was neat and tidy in Fairfield |
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| Logging was an early industry |
The highway follows the route of "Goodale's Cutoff, a popular shortcut on the Oregon Trail that runs parallel to a beautiful fast flowed stream called Silver Creek. The Nature Conservancy, one of the most effective organizations in protecting environmental parcels of land in the country was instrumental in protecting 476 acres of this clear fast flowing stream in 1976. This is a famous fly fishing stream, a favorite of Hemingway.
I arrived in Hailey, Idaho in mid afternoon and located the Deer Creek Road which leads into the Sawtooth National Forest where I found a nice free campsite. I ended up using it for two nights while in Hailey. There are four towns leading into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area; Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley although Ketchum and Sun Valley seem to be one town. They are all surrounded by beautiful terrain although Ketchum / Sun Valley have the money making ski area.
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| Sure after they used the swords on the Indians |
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| No large fancy hotels and trendy restaurants in Hailey |
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| Side walk view |
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| Hailey City Hall |
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| Downtown Mural |
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| The beautiful view on Deer Creek Road through a well groomed ranch |
Sun Valley does have one very cool thing, the only remaining ore wagons from the glory days of mining, which are still in workable condition and stored in a beautiful museum building. They are taken out for a special parade once every year. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, so all I could do was look through the windows and read the panels on the outside of the building.
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I did get a decent photo through the window, they were massive double high
wagons that amazingly were saved |
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| This what they transported |
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| My favorite store in Sun Valley / Ketchum |
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| On elf the few original buildings in Ketchum |
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| The original Bellevue Town Hall, now a museum |
It seems to me that the big attraction here is the paved bike path, the Wood River Trail, that runs 20 + miles between Sun Valley to Bellevue along the former Oregon Short Line Railroad of the Union Pacific Railroad. This trail is also groomed in the winter for cross country skiing. These towns are very fitness fanatic, every one is biking, running, skateboarding and skiing depending on what season.
Also the fishing is world class with nothing but clean fast moving rivers and streams. Anyhow, I didn’t bike, or run, could not even walk well with my sore lower back, but I hobbled down a part of the path to look at the old railroad bridge. There two of them within a few miles and they are sort of rare.
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| The Wood River Trail, couldn't be much nicer |
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| The old railroad bridge |
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| The Oregon Short Line was a big deal in its day |
As I was looking at the window display at the Blaine County Historic Museum in Hailey, of the early 1900’s flu epidemic, the door opened and although closed the young woman invited me to come in and look around. I spent close to an hour looking around, they have good stuff and are obviously nice people.
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| Those are interesting masks |
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| Amazing chair built by an Oregon Trail settlers while on the trail |
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| Sadly the Hotel Hiawatha is gone, it was a great one |
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| Samson the Elephant story was incredible |
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| Also very sad |
I ventured into one bar / restaurant for dinner in Hailey, the “Wicked Spud”, initially because I was attracted by the name. However, when I read some reviews and checked the menu I was impressed. It’s just an unassuming town bar really, and the food is basically centered on their burgers, but they are so good. The 1/2 lb Angus Burger and fries were perfection and it seems to be a local town hangout, my kind of place.
Time to move on, my next scheduled stop is Stanley, Idaho
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