It was a cloudless morning, just like the last several. Somewhat cool, 39 degrees when I got up this morning. After being driven out of the Bighorn Mountains by a blizzard, the weather has been fantastic, ideal for the outdoor stuff we have been doing. And it turns out, a chilly morning was ideal for what was to come.
We left the campsite and followed the Salmon River through a narrow canyon that would widen occasionally for a small farming operation or a small town. Very picturesque drive. We stopped in one of those small towns, Clayton, with a population of 9. Near as we could tell, the only operating businesses were a saloon and a tiny post office. But they had decent cell service, so we sat by the side of the road for a bit and did any Internet-related stuff. Deb also mailed a post card.
Deb used the time to research the location of some hot springs. There are a couple around here that are not very well documented and we figured out that one of them was near the town of Sunbeam, which is really more of a ghost town. Sunbeam’s heyday was around 1910, when mining was big here. There was a dam built across the Salmon River to power the city which ruined the salmon fishery above the dam. The dam was dynamited 20 years later to restore the salmon runs and the Salmon River is now designated a wild and scenic river.
We found the hot spring a few hundred yards west of Sunbeam. A wide spot in the road and a sign marks the location. Two recycled tubs and a bunch of natural pools are accessible by a scramble down the embankment. The water in these pools range from way-too-hot to river-cold. In the chill of the morning, the hotter pools were throwing off lots of steam into the air.
We changed into swim gear and found a pool that was just about right. The soak was fantastic. Especially when the air temperature was 39 degrees. What fun finding a little natural gem like this.
We tested the tubs, but the water was just too hot to be comfortable. The rocky pools was where it was at.
Once we got out and changed, we figured out that the Custer Motorway, which we debated taking yesterday, comes out here, in Sunbeam. We really had no agenda for today so we drove in to investigate, as this end of the road looked better than the other end.
This road winds through a very narrow canyon, following the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River for quite a distance. After a few miles we began to see enormous piles of rocks that didn’t look very natural and at 10 miles in was a historic site, a dredging operation that started when gold was discovered here. The river was dredged by the largest self-powered dredge ever to operate in Idaho. The dredge dug out rock and recovered gold by washing and separating the rock, dirt and gold. The big rock piles we saw on the way in were the tailings from this operation.
There are tours of this massive machine daily, but only from Memorial Day to Labor Day so we just had to look at it from the outside.
A couple miles farther up the road is the ghost town of Custer. Once a bustling mining town, Custer became a ghost town in 1910. Only 7 buildings remain but some of those buildings have been preserved and can be toured between--you guessed it--Memorial Day and Labor Day. So the buildings were all boarded up for the winter, but a lot of the mining equipment is still scattered about.
We left here and drove the remainder of the way into Stanley, which is at the crossroads of three scenic byways. We noted one additional hot spring on the way, in case we wanted to come back for another soak.
We stopped at the information center in Stanley, and the girl there was either uninformed or unwilling to part with information about additional hot springs in the area. The gal at the Forest Service office three miles down the road was much more helpful. Turns out we found the two natural springs that they would recommend. Most of the others are owned and run by commercial enterprises or resorts
We noted earlier that Redfish Lake looked like a good kayaking destination and the gal at the Forest Service office confirmed that. So this was our next stop, paddling around in Lower Redfish Lake, and then, after making dinner, more padding in Redfish Lake. Beautiful views of the Sawtooth Mountains from the kayaks, and a great way to close out the day.
All the campgrounds around Redfish Lake were full as it is now Friday night and the weekend crowds are coming in. So we found a site at Sunny Gulch Campground, just down the road from Redfish Lake.
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