From Byway to Byway

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Today we got a late start—we really need to try and get in earlier at night! But we must admit there is something to be said for a hotel room—even if it is on the third floor and you have to cart everything up there! The sky was blue, and it was warm… Carl has decided that he can wear shorts and a tee-shirt again, Maria is not so sure! Again our objective is to move both West and North…

Statistics

Starting Destination: Ketchum, Idaho
Ending Destination: Salmon, Idaho
Ending Destination GPS: N: 45° 10.739’ W: 113° 53.883’ Elev: 3965’
Miles Driven: 181.1
Number of times we crossed the Salmon River: 12 or was it 13?

The Sawtooth Scenic Byway

We continue to follow the Byway we were traveling yesterday - following the Big Wood River Valley into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and through the Galena Summit… Perhaps this was the destination of the bicyclists that we saw along the road? If so, they have a pretty big climb ahead! The trees are continuing to change, providing color for our journey, however, there are a lot more mountain slopes without trees - we wondered why without coming up with good answer. Stopping at the summit we had a hazy view of the Salmon River and a view of what is possibly the source of the haze, what looks like a column of smoke from a fire. We had checked the fire service website and to our surprise there were still some fires in the area! Maria has also noticed that wherever there are steep windy mountain roads there seems to be more motorcycles - or is it just that today is Sunday?

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The Salmon River Scenic Byway

The top of Galena Summit is the end of the Sawtooth Scenic Byway and the start of the Salmon River Scenic Byway… We are not sure exactly what defines a byway, but have just noticed 3 things—scenery, historical markers telling you stuff about the area and twisty turny roads where you can’t do the speed limit, unless you are a local and have driven the roads such that you know where every turn is! It is no wonder that it is taking us so much time to get anywhere!! At the top of the valley are the headwaters of the Salmon River—one of those “blink and you missed it” type sites! We didn’t have to go very far before we came to the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. Believe it or not several species of salmon make the approximately 970 mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to the headwaters of the Salmon River… Unfortunately, construction of the dams on the Salmon and other rivers meant that the number of Salmon reaching this area dwindled dramatically immediately after construction - hence the need for the fish hatchery. It was interesting to see the process that is used, even though fish in all stages were not actually present at the hatchery when we were there. However, we did get to see some of the fish eat lunch - the water on the raceway where they are held went from dead calm to a frenzy of motion in about a millisecond flat!!
We continued along the valley watching… (1) The river grow from a stream we could jump across to a fast flowing, but shallow river we would need to have waders to get across. (2) The shape of the valley as the river passed through wide shallow sections where there is agricultural activity and people are living to steeper, narrower gorge like valleys where lots of rock was blasted just to create the road.
(3) Evidence of human endeavor, like the dam that was built in the early 1900’s to produce electricity for a silver mine that continued in operation for a year after the power plant became operational - you would never have known that a dam had been there except for one of the walls (the other one was blasted to allow fish passage upstream) and the photos of the “lake” on the historical information board. And (4) anything else that caught our eye… I.e., the Sunbeam hot springs - essentially the spring water had been diverted into a culvert under the road so there was warm water entering the river at that point. We especially liked the way the rocks were “naturally” arranged to create pools… We ended the day in Salmon - appropriate we thought, as we had been following the river all day… We were also interested to find out that Salmon claims to be the hometown of Sacagawea.

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”Brown” Blob Update

During the day we managed two additions to the “blob report!” We saw a whole group of bighorn sheep grazing in a farmer’s alfalfa field and then spotted two coming down the cliffs across the road. Unfortunately for Carl there were no horns in the bunch! We also saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree along side the road… He even sat there long enough for us to stop quickly, wind down the window and take several photo’s (left)!... During our travels we have also seen plenty of fly fishermen - standing in the river with a fishing pole trying to catch a fish with an artificial fly… Maria wonders just exactly what the attraction is… she guesses they wonder about us when we ride by on our bikes!!

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Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: Sacagawea - One of the Native American guides for the Lewis & Clark Expedition
Today’s Question: What is a Sockeye?

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Comments

[Troy]

Sockeye
Since dad isn't around to answer....a sockeye is what Maria should do to Carl when he is checking out the pretty girls....or is a species of salmon.

[Kristi Tafolla]

hello
when I visited the Klamouth river in northern Calif. a Sockeye is a specis of salmon

[The Odyssey]

Two Black Eyes...
You are correct on both accounts!...