We are in love with the high country of the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho. We have spent many days there, but had not yet been into what we call the Stoddard country. Well, last Wednesday we flew from Salmon, ID to Cold Meadows.
We started our backpack here, hiking to Coyote Springs.
We enjoyed a large campfire here on an icy cold night that had a beautiful pink sunset that lasted about 45 minutes.
We then hiked over the ridge and across having difficulty with the trail as the area has burned and there has been no trail work. It was sketchy in place but we found the route.
We came upon a beautiful meadow that was our second night's camp. What a great place!
Sara was tired so made a neat little nest so she could snooze in the sunshine.
The next morning it started to snow. We think we must have spent the last fall day in the this wonderful spot! Now we climbed to 9100 feet elevation and hiked along a ridge, eventually heading down to Stoddard Creek Point and then out to the old Stoddard Lookout.
I was disappointed to see how deteriorated it is. Here is started to rain, so we headed down into Stoddard Creek itself. We camped here and enjoyed a hike down the creek via a deer trail to see the Middlefork of the Salmon River and some wonderful pictographs.
Our last day out would prove to be glorious. The hike was a stiff climb and then a long descent but we had wonderful views of the high country of the wilderness.
We ended at the newly reconstructed Stoddard Creek pack bridge that crosses the Main Salmon River.
This trip is already a classic on our list of adventures!
2 comments:
The photos are gorgeous but I am tired from just imagining doing all that walking. What I wonderful thing to do with your partner. Good luck to you guys. You have obviously earned the break.
Lynn! What an amazing adventure!! Such a beautiful country we have to explore and discover!
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