Leaving Montana, we drove south to Butte, then west to Anaconda--both giving a brief taste of Montana's mining history. Butte sits in a very attractive setting, but one whole side of the town is a huge open pit that rather overshadows all the natural beauty.
Near Anaconda, we turned off on a Mapquest-recommended route. As the road narrowed, and soon there were no lane markers of any kind, we started to have more than passing thoughts of hapless travelers sent off on unmarked roads and uncertain fates. It was a scenic drive, though a bit clouded by these thoughts. Fortunately, it was only 22 miles, so by the time we got to the point of voicing our concerns and talking about whether we should go back and take another route, we started to see signs of civilization again and--even better--regular, marked roads.
We wove our way through the lovely Big Hole Valley, following the Big Hole River and noting many fly fishermen. We saw some deer and several osprey nests. We even saw a small herd of antelope. Yes, there were threads of the tune...."where the deer and the antelope play..." running through our minds, and even escaping our mouths.
At Chief Joseph Pass, where Montana meets the jutting-out portion of Idaho's eastern boundary, we turned south on the Salmon River Scenic Byway. Almost immediately, we could see a thick haze ahead of us, with obscured views of the mountains. We soon realized we were seeing evidence of a fire. As the smoke thickened, we once again were wondering if this was a good choice of route. Since we continued to encounter cars coming from the south, we assumed there was no problem with road closures. Also, we were now at a point where to reverse our route would involve hundreds of additional miles, so we pressed on, even as our eyes started to feel the smoke. We finally arrived at the area of the fire and could see the smoke plume directly. It was on the other side of the hill from where we were driving, and we saw no evidence of people evacuating. Eventually, the smoky air became less dense, but the hazy conditions followed us all the way to Galena Summit.
Another Mapquest suggestion for our route south was to turn off the Scenic Byway and take a Forest Service road. Apparently, this is what Mapquest calls a more direct route, but we decided to take a pass on that recommendation. One of our rewards was catching sight of a white-tailed deer fording the Salmon River.
Just south of Challis, we saw a large orange road sign with flashing lights and orange flags that warned of bighorn sheep on the road. Since we had managed to escape bighorn country in Glacier and Waterton without seeing any evidence of bighorn sheep, we took this warning with a grain of salt. Soon after, however, we saw a man with binoculars watching a hillside above us, so we pulled over to do the same. These light brown creatures are quite camouflaged on the rocky slopes, but we did eventually see a bighorn ewe and several yearlings.
As we came into the Stanley Basin, we caught our first sight of the magnificent Sawtooths. It was very hazy, but they're still an impressive range.
We climbed over the Galena Summit (8701'). This view is looking back north over the Stanley Basin.
We headed on toward Ketchum. It had been a long day, so we quickly settled into our room and headed downstairs to the patio in time to have dinner while watching the sun set. Fall is a lovely time of year in Sun Valley. The aspens and cottonwoods are just beginning to turn bright yellow. The area is quieter than during its two peaks of summer and ski season visitors. The days are warm, and the nights cool. We planned to spend only 1 day here, sampling the hills of Warm Springs and Elkhorn and the rather fairytale existence that is Sun Valley. Jerry was born about an hour southwest of here, and he has many memories of coming to this area and fishing the Big Wood River with his grandfather during his family's frequent visits. It was a brief but sentimental visit.
Finally, it was time to aim the car toward home. We had heard of yet more wildfires popping up along the route we had thought we would take to Bend, so we opted to simply drive straight through and sleep in our own beds again. It was a long day on the road, but after coming through some smoke and haze, we were rewarded with watching the sun set to the west as we came through the Gorge. What a lovely road to bring us back home.
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