Around the middle part of August I decided that we either had to schedule some kind of a camping trip, or else the motor home would stay winterized for the rest of the year. We had made a couple of trips for a few days each to North Salt Lake, but that was the extent of our travels for this year.

It looked like Labor Day weekend would be a good time to go somewhere. The criteria were simple: close and inexpensive. We’ve gone to Yellowstone quite often over Labor Day weekend and have enjoyed those visits. Since most of the kids are in school, the Park is much less congested and more congenial. Besides, the bison seem to start migrating around the park about that time of the year.

However, the last time we were in the Stanley, Idaho area was before we went to Japan fifteen years ago. It’s a pretty area, is about a five hour drive from the house, and pretty much met the criteria. Further, if we took the motor home up to the Idaho Falls Temple for our Friday morning shift and left from there, we would already be an hour closer to Stanley. So that’s what we’ve done.

We packed up the motor home during the early part of the week, hitched the Tracker on the back on Thursday evening, and drove away at 4:15 a.m. on Friday, September 3rd. We worked our shift at the Temple, ate lunch in the motor home, and headed west on US Route 20 towards Arco, Idaho. From there we drove up to Challis, Idaho and then followed the Salmon River into Stanley.

Much has changed since our last visit at least 18 years ago. The town itself is pretty much the same, but a number of new Forest Service campgrounds have been opened along the Salmon River. I kind of wanted easy camping (that means electricity and WIFI), so I pushed for staying in a private campground. We settled on the Elk Mountain RV Resort four miles northwest of Stanley. It’s just OK. We have electricity and fairly slow WIFI (that makes it possible to write this blog entry). The spots are close together. There are no fire rings, and there’s no table at our campsite. After seeing the nice Forest Service campgrounds along the way, I wouldn’t choose to stay at the Elk Mountain RV Resort (quite a stretch of imagination to call this a “resort”) again. When we come up here again in a few years, we’ll stay along the river somewhere. Further, the State of Idaho is putting WIFI into the State Parks!! A $29 per year fee gains access to the internet at selected state parks. The fee is used to pay for installations at more parks across the state.

So far we’ve mostly just driven around the area, stopping here and there for photography opportunities. We went to Church this morning at the Stanley Branch. I enjoy Church here a lot … helped by the fact that Church is 2 hours long and they meet in a building with huge glass windows looking out over the Sawtooth Mountains. There’s nothing boring about a church meeting in Stanley, Idaho!

Tomorrow we’ll visit the Yankee Fork gold mine area. Plenty of old buildings and equipment to keep both Nina and me happy photographing stuff. Then it’s back home on Tuesday. And we’ll be done playing around for a while.