All Who Wander Are Not Lost

Today was a day of wandering around the Northeastern corner of Idaho.  We put 220 miles on the Honda exploring the back roads and little towns.  It was a great way to spend the day.  There were three scenic routes that we found and decided to combine them into an all day tour.

Terri, Collette and Abbey the Wonder Dog hit the road.
I'm the back seat driver/navigator.

Fort Henry Historic Byway was the first leg of the all day adventure.  This "black line" road was paved for the first 20 miles then turned into a very good gravel road.  Much of this road followed the Nez Perce Indians movement to Yellowstone.  Just another sad part of our history with the Indians.

We saw these life sized sculptors on a ridge out in the middle of nowhere.  As we were looking, we saw 4 ranchers trying to round up 2 stray sheep near the sculptors.  In the end the sheep won and are still wandering free.

Lost Gold Trails Loop was the next leg of the trip.  Unlike the name there was no gold found but there are still active opal mines in operation in the town of Spencer.

I had to ring the town bell in Spencer.
The fire department didn't come running so I rang it again louder.
Still no response.  The town has no fire department.

Picnic lunch in the town park of Dubois.

After our picnic we stopped and had ice cream cones in town.  It must be a heavily Hispanic town so I had the local favorite, Churro ice cream.  It was great.  If I ever come across it again I'll have it again.

We hadn't been on a small enough road so I picked the 7,000 foot all gravel Porcupine Mountain Pass.  Great choice.  I believe the name should be changed because the cattle wander freely all over the road.  Charity do you agree with my name change?

The newly renamed "Cow Pie Pass" in honor of the road art.

I'm not at all sure why I shot that photo, but I thought my youngest child would somehow enjoy it.

The remains of an old barn with a wagon wheel fence.

The more typical wooden cattle fence. They go on for miles.

Upper Mesa Falls

Mesa Falls Scenic Byway was the last leg of our journey. Our 10:00am departure in the morning puts us at our last stop at the falls at 5:30pm.  A very long day, but the best was saved for last.

Lower Mesa Falls

Both Falls were amazing.  The roar of the lower falls would have been enough reason to go just to hear.  The upper falls projected a mist that came up hundreds of feet to where we were standing.

Happy Campers at Mesa Falls

We pulled back into camp at 7:00pm, a little tired, but satisfied with a very good adventure.  It was everyone for themselves for dinner.  Both girls started with wine.  Don't know if they ever got to the dinner part.

Random Photo for sister Sara:

Downtown Dubois's finest and only hotel.