The Salmon River and Peaks & Craters

Friday, September 13, 2013

We ended up in Salmon, Idaho Thursday night after an unbelievably beautiful ride up along the Salmon River. You'll never guess what happened then.  We stayed at a wonderful motel called the Salmon River Motel!  First time since August 22nd that we've slept indoors, had electricity, and a bathtub. Almost forgot how fun that stuff is!  Rick spent 3 hours cleaning the trike and trailer while I sat in the tub, gave myself a manicure and a pedicure and had a quiet relaxing night.  Aaahhhh.....
Friday morning we left Salmon, dodging the raindrops, and headed south on the Peaks & Craters Scenic Byway towards Idaho Falls. We loved the peaks a lot more than the craters but like I read somewhere, "You can't appreciate one without the other." There apparently was a huge earthquake in that area in 1983 that created a 26-mile fault at the base of the mountain range.  It lowered the valley by 9 feet and the mountains actually raised. It swallowed a river and the small town is now called Lost River. 
For the first time in a long while, we left the mountains behind us and made our way into Idaho Falls. Interesting night there.  No room at the inn of campgrounds but the owner of one recommended a "free" camping area "down by the river" called South Tourist Park.  Sure enough.  We went down there, found a beautiful spot on the river and set up camp.  Well, it turned out, that while the rule was, "One Night Only", people had been living there all summer.  Many of them homeless and some just there to party.  There was a man and a young girl next door that were very friendly.  They had come upon hard times and had been staying there quite frequently, so they filled us in on all the scoop.  The police were there for quite a while before we went to bed and apparently our neighbor called them back in the middle of the night because he heard such terrible fighting from a tent down the way.  Rick and I never heard a thing, slept great through a rainstorm and headed out in the very cool morning aimed for Jackson, WY.  It looks like we're going to be struggling with the weather for the next few days. Temperatures have definitely dropped and thunderstorm chances increased to between 40 & 80%.  Oh well.....I guess we'll just have cool & rainy happy trails.