As February neared its close, winter was starting to lose its grip on northern Idaho. The change was so quick that a lot of the fields we passed on the way north were covered with standing water, rivers were bank full and brown, and fields of winter wheat were starting to green up. It was finally time to escape our winter hibernation and get out on a trip somewhere, and we chose to go north for a couple days.
The Lower Salmon is local for us. You just can't see it from the road - or the highway at least. It was an easy trip down to Lone Pine Bar outside of Cottonwood one fall morning. We found a nice campground, white sand beaches, salmon spawning in the gravel and chukars clucking on the hills. We didn't come home with a sample of the salmon or the chukar but it was good to find…
Fall is a great time to be in the woods. Nice temperatures, generally fewer people than summer, the bugs are fading, and if you get to the right spot, the trees are starting to show off. We don’t have a lot of aspen close to home, so if we were going to see any as they transitioned from green to gold we’d have to hit the road. Southeast Idaho seemed to be a good option, with a lot of aspen and even a chance to fill a deer tag, if we were lucky.
