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| Chris kickin back with some coffee, Sawtooth National Forest ID. |
Making Camp after breaky we headed north to Payette ID. Our TAT map showed a northern route as we cruised through Pleasant View Hills, then connected on to Rattlesnake Creek Rd. We drove around Fort Hall Indian Reservation while heading to American Falls. Cool mountainous roads with little towns were scattered along the way. From here we set our sights north on Bear Trap Cave Rd. located along the Craters of the Moon National Monument, a beautiful trail winding through ancient black Lava. Even though we didn't go into the park this awesome trail skirts the National Monument from the east and gave us quite a view as we drove up and down on Arco-Minidokta Rd.
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| Clear clean rivers ID. |
We dropped into a little town called Arco just to cross over the river and then back heading west on Antelope Creek Rd. This was grouse country and man, oh man,"them" little guys are flyin-fattys along with wild turkeys and quail. Pushing on the TAT maps kept us busy with all the twists and turns for me and my navigator Chris. Entering the Challis National Forrest the trail went up and we climbed through several passes Bear Creek Summit el 7660 then on to Antelope Pass el 8934. We were now in copper country. Old copper mines dot the area and we liked this road so much that we missed the TAT turn off and just kept driving!
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| Dollarhide Summit landing ID. |
Lucky for us, the road turned out to be very cool and ran more west than south. We eventually found a way to merge back on the TAT course. But before that we saw some great scenic landscapes as well as wildlife. Wide clean rivers, open valley spaces, tall majestic trees with grassy under growth. Camping was great! Wilderness camping we found especially good and also some great National Forest camping with pretty low fees.
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| Rocky Bar Junction |
Heading west with little under a half a tank of gas we took a stretch with no gas or services over dirt-based roads that could become impassable when wet. 78 miles to Featherville. It was a 4.5 hr drive, rough!! Nice!! Needless to say we gassed up in Featherville and headed for Rocky Bar turn off, the plan was to head over to Centerville then through Emmett and cross the Idaho Oregon Border at Payette ID north of Ontario Oregon.
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| American Falls Res., Snake River ID. |
As we followed our plan we became more aware of the smoky conditions passing through one canyon after another closer to the Oregon border. The ride was spectacular! This part of Idaho needed more time to explore, however, time we didn't have as Oregon was just ahead of us. In addition, there was only 4 nights before Chris had to catch a flight at SeaTac airport back to Texas.
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| Sawtooth Wilderness |
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| Major tree on trail! |
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We pressed on to the Oregon Coast, to finish our TAT adventure....
See you on the Trail!!....
🚙....
