Today we slept in a bit and enjoyed our beautiful
view of the Salmon River from our room at the Steelhead Inn in Lucille,
Idaho. It's the last town on Pacific time before we headed south into
Mountain time. We took our 90 minute drive back to McCall Idaho and
arrived at Ponderosa State Park. It's a peninsula covered in pines
bordered by beautiful Payette Lake. It reminded me of Lake Winnipesaukee
and was one of the most picturesque spots we visited. We started with a
hike through the pines and took a scenic drive up a gravel road to the high spot
of the peninsula. We got some great views of the lake and the nearby
mountains that rose about 2-3,000 feet above the lake.
We enjoyed a huckleberry pie we purchased at a
roadside farmers' market on the drive down. We ate along the water and
dipped in the lake, but didn't get the whole way inn. The water was very
cold and despite a strong sun, the wind made it difficult to get into the chilly
water.
After checking in to our hotel, we quickly headed
out again and rented a kayak for an hour. we started at the north end of
Payette Lake and floated down part of the Payette River. We enjoyed seeing
another group of kayakers who were being followed by a hearty dog swimming at
their side. There was great scenery from our kayak in the calm waters of
the river.
After this we headed another 20 miles north on a
road through the Payette National Forest to Burgdorf Hot Springs. This was
the site of an old hotel which remains on the property. There were rustic
cabins for rent and a wonderful hot springs in an olympic sized pool surrounded
by rustic wooden pool borders. The floor of the pool was sand. The water
was hot and the mountains watched on in the distance. Inside the main
building, a woman was communication on amateur radio with people who we believe
were also in the mountain wilderness nearby. We met many people here from
the Boise area who gave us some ideas for our final day of touring in Idaho
tomorrow. I didn't want to leave this place which felt a million miles
away and idyllic, but also very comfortable. Alas, the sun was setting and
we were getting hungry so we made our way back to McCall. Along the route,
a bear rambled across the road about two-tenths of a mile in front our our
car. About a mile later we saw a group of three pre-teen girls directing
us to keep driving down the road. They seemed to be in the middle of
nowhere, but they were having fun so we continued on.
At dinner, we were greeted by "Jon??". The
host of our bed and breakfast the other night recognized us and we caught him up
on our last few days. We got to meet his kids, who later gave us advice on
what ice cream flavors to get when we bumped into them again at a dessert
stand. Colleen got the huckleberry ice cream she'd been longing for. It turns out huckleberry is a big deal in Idaho.
McCall was much busier today than our first visit
on Wednesday. It seems Labor Day Weekend has arrived and a constant flow
of traffic into town showed that McCall is quite a popular place with tourists
and Boise area residents looking to get away.
Ponderosa State Park B+
Kayaking A
Burgdorf Hot Springs A+
-- POSTED BY JON
No comments:
Post a Comment