20120912  My Favorite Time of Year

All summer long more popular outdoor vacation destinations in the West teem.  Kids return to school in August these days it seems, so visitation drops then but the Labor Day holiday remains. 

Monday of Labor Day weekend begins my favorite time of the year.  With places like Grand Canyon and Yellowstone as possible exceptions, outdoor destinations are much less visited. Yet even high in the mountains this late in the year the weather can be fine for another 6 weeks or so.

This 12th day of September finds Ann and I near the Hells Canyon Dam along the Snake River on the Oregon/Idaho border. 




Well, not really the Snake River.  The dam has created a 20+ mile snake of a reservoir. 


Downstream of the dam the river returns.  Anyway, cliffs rise on either side more than 4000’. 


From our campsite I can literally take a single giant step and be in the water.  We are parked on a pad built as part of the dam construction over 40 years ago.  Surely 100 vehicles could park here, though they would be crowded.  From the looks of things, MANY vehicles are parked here at a busier time.

Right now, as the sun sets, the only vehicles parked here are ours, Moby and Alice.  They sit in the shade of the canyon bottom while the cliff tops blaze in the sun.  A warm breeze blows downstream after a day when the temperature reached 87 Fahrenheit.  The only sounds we hear are fish jumping, water lapping, and the wind through the cottonwoods.  What a wonderful spot at my favorite time of the year.

20120915 Idaho Sportsmans Access

Leaving Oregon the other day was hard, what with Oregon’s wealth of public land and no sales tax.  Idaho brought a reality check with the store clerk announcing an amount a few percent higher than that posted on the shelf.

Idaho isn’t all bad, though.  This state has a program administered by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game called Sportsmans Access.  I’m not sure how it works exactly, but it seems landowners public and private have provided access to hunters and anglers throughout the state.  In most cases access is free.  Some access points are simply a tiny turnout next to a stream.  Others are many acres.

Ann and I had been intending to check out some of these areas as they are noted on our Idaho state backcountry atlas.  Today was the day we did it.  

Our original route north out of Council, ID, where we had mail sent, was, as Ann puts it, a hornets’ nest of fires.  Smoke, sometimes in a plume and sometimes generally covering the sky like a thick marine layer of clouds, could be seen in our direction of travel and smelled where we were.  A check of the USFS fire website showed several fires to the north and northeast.  Just where we wanted to go.  This morning we changed direction.

Turning back south, we hit I-84 from Payette to Mountain Home.  This 100 miles marked our first real interstate highway driving in three weeks or so.  From Mountain Home we left I-84 for Highway 20, heading for Craters of the Moon National Monument.  It seemed away from the many Idaho fires and offers dispersed camping: read free and isolated.

Along the way we happened to see a sign for a Sportsmans Access point called Moonstone.  Of course we passed it by but looked in its direction.  We could see a dirt road and a bit of water in a deserted place.  A quarter of a mile later we turned around and headed back. 

What a find, just a quarter of a mile off the highway. 




The end of the dirt road sports several reasonably level campspots, some with fire rings.









 












A paved ramp leads to the reservoir.







A spiffy privy sits nearby.






In the spring Moonstone Reservoir catches and holds snowmelt for agriculture and grazing. 




By mid-September, when we arrived, most of the water had gone.  But then, so had the other campers. 

 We were alone among the sagebrush and lava rock. 

Dare I say it?  You know what is coming.  I won't say it.  Oh, what the heck.  This is our own private Idaho.