Exploring

The Elk City Wagon Road and Beyond

We’ve been on several sections of the Elk City Wagon Road but up until now, we hadn’t made a trip of driving the length of it. Time for that to change. After all, the road starts within a five minute drive of home!

What is the Elk City Wagon Road? The road was constructed in 1894 and 1895 as a route from the South Fork of the Clearwater River to the goldfields of the Elk City area. Most of the route is still drivable today, even though there is very little left of the inns, stables and towns that popped up along the way to support the miners on their way to discover riches. It remained the main route to Elk City until the 1930’s.

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Discovering New Backroads – A Trip Through The Salmon River Mountains

We’d just finished up our backpack trip around the Alice Toxaway Loop. It took us about six hours to drive to the trailhead. We thought we’d take the backroads home, which took us about three days, where we discovered along the way entirely new (to us) parts of Idaho.

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Mackay Bar, 2024

It is always fun to study maps and dream of where to go and what is there. In the middle of Idaho the Salmon River bisects the state running east to west, and most of the country is only accessible by boat, horse, foot or plane. So when you see a switchbacked road making its way down from the high forests to the river, well, if you are curious you just want to go and check it out. We waited until we thought the snow would allow us to pass through the high country above the river (about 6400 feet elevation) and still early enough that the temperatures down in the river canyon below (about 2400 feet) would still be bearable.

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