North Fork, Idaho

We left Clarkston, Washington and took US 12 thru to Lolo, Montana then down US 93 to North Fork. US 12 is a wonderful and beautiful road that is also easy on the motorhome.

Lolo Summit was an easy pull. There were moose in the area but we failed to see any on this trip. We wanted to stop at Lolo Hot Springs for the night but they wanted a "non-refundable" $15 for the dogs. "non-refundable"? Isn't that just another name for "we charge 15 bucks on top of the site fee for dogs"? I say blow smoke up someone else's butt. 

If we can't spent the night we might as well pull off the road and just relax.

While on the roadside rest... I might as well throw in a lure or two, or three, four or my whole tackle box but with a familiar result...nada.

This little guy made up for not seeing any moose.

We set up the motorhome with our favorite view looking out over the Salmon River at the River's Fork Lodge at North Fork.

Our first trip after setting up camp was to go down the dirt road that follows the Salmon River in the evening to see what changes might have occurred after the "mustang fire complex" last year that chased us away and burned over 400,000 acres. These elk look healthy but we were told that 40 got boxed in to a canyon and perished during the fire.

All up and down the river were tens of heron's staking out territory to hunt on.

We saw three bears on the 12 mile trip down river. Unfortunately it was sundown and the absence of light made it hard to photograph. This was only one of three we saw the first night.

                                 Time to get busy here, floating down the river!

Off I go on just a short three mile float to see how the river is flowing this time of year before Donna joins me. I saw deer, heron, bald eagles, osprey, ducks, and geese, but not a lot of fish. :-(

When we drove into the valley we noticed a lot of "mushroom" buyer signs that were not here last year. Found out that a forest fire promotes the growth of a mushroom called the "morel". I had never heard of it but talked to one of the buyers and on his suggestion we bought 1 pound and Donna sautéed them tonight. Oh my goodness...what flavor and texture. I love them.

Late on the second afternoon we headed to "Mother Chukar's Cafe" which is an easy 20 mile dirt road that follows the Salmon River. We spent a good time here last year visiting with the owners.

We are glad to back at North Fork, even more glad that there are no fires like last year......