To Missoula and Stanley
On Wednesday, June 30, 2021, before leaving Lake McDonald,
we tried to take the Cedar Walk from nearby Avalanche,
but couldn’t find a place to park the car.
Instead, we checked out after breakfast and drove along
Flathead Lake lined with cherry orchards to the National
Bison Range. This is now a Tribal Park. After checking
out their exhibits, we took the shorter of two unpaved
scenic drives. We saw bison, elk, white tailed deer
and pronghorn. We are glad we chose to go to this park.
We drove from there to Missoula for a nice lunch and checked in early to do our laundry. It was quite hot again, so we mostly tried to stay cool during the afternoon. Because of the heat and COVID, downtown Missoula was not a lively as we expected. We had dinner with our two friends and bid them farewell as they left us and headed to Vancouver, Washington. They were wonderful traveling companions, and we enjoyed traveling with them.
On Thursday, July 1, 2021, we drove south from Missoula on US 93 through the Bitterroot Valley into Idaho. We stopped at a nice old church in Stephensville (photo above at top).
Once we entered Idaho, we were on the Salmon River Scenic Byway which took us along the river toward the small town of Stanley. We stopped first at the Sacajawea center in the town of Salmon.
We tried to visit Land of the Yankee Fork State Park too, but the wind came up something fierce, so we got back in the car and drove on. We did briefly stop at the Sunbeam Dam/Yankee Form Historic Display. But because it was now raining, we decided to skip the dirt road trip to mining ghost towns in the mountains above the dam.
It was a cloudy afternoon for photos.
We arrived in the town of Stanley in the late afternoon and checked into our lodge on the banks of the Salmon River. We explored the town which has a permanent population of 116! Many streets were unpaved and some of the buildings were pretty rustic. But the location near the Sawtooth Mountains was beautiful. We drove a bit around today and would see more tomorrow.
A not atypical dwelling in the town of Stanley.
We settled into our cabin on the banks of the Salmon River and hoped for clear skies tomorrow.
