Challis, Idaho
Round Valley RV Park
We've enjoyed the slightly higher temperatures and the full hookups this week. Before we leave to head north into Montana we have one more ghost town we want to see.
Bayhorse.
There is a small, maybe 5 campsites, at Bayhorse Lake campground but you do have to cross this bridge to get there from this side of town. It also leads to Bayhorse Ghost Town which has some of the better preserved buildings.
There were some turkeys walking along the dirt road. Not sure if the white one is an albino or someone's domestic that escaped and joined up with the natives.
I loved the colorful stone used to for this building. As they progress with the upkeep, some of these buildings may eventually be open once they are safe.
The Bayhorse Mill is an amazing structure and stands out once your get closer to the town.
As seen from the other side.
I was really impressed with the kilns. It took 48 men to provide the wood for these smelters to operate.
There is now a pine growing up in the middle of this kiln.
We spent an hour or so walking around the town then drove further up the road to see the campground. It was several miles on a very corduroy road that is narrow, steep and rough in many places. I have heard many people bring up large toy-hauler trailers to the lakes. I would never bring our rig up here.
There are two small, very shallow lakes up here. There are trout in them. It's a long way to go to get to this tiny campground run by the National Forest. It was small, but the sites were quite level and very large. It looked fairly new or newly renovated. It had outhouses, firepits and picnic tables. You could definitely fit large rigs in the pull-through sites if you could get it up here. There is fishing and ATV trails.
While Steve was pondering, Hurley was pondering how to get him off his potential "toy"!
This stump made an interesting frame of the trail around the lake.
There are two docks to fish from.
It was a nice trail to hike around but the cold wind made the choice to go back to the truck an easy one.
The ride back down the mountain was a colorful one.
There was another nice BLM campground along the river that we checked out. The camp host was just buttoning things up and getting ready to head out. It's open year round, but the water is turned off when the camp host leaves.
There is a cute museum in the town of Clayton, population 7. Unfortunately, like many other things this late in the season, it was closed. You could still walk around and read the signs and look at much of the old equipment used at the mine in this once bustling town.
How cool is this very old bulldozer?
The town museum. Closed for the winter now.
Don't mess with the last remaining residents!
Look at all those silver bars!
Who's that driving?
Heading for warmer weather I'm sure.
The bison jump was one thing we were looking forward to seeing. After watching the movie in the visitor center a few days ago it sounded amazing. Instead of herding the buffalo to the edge, the archaeologists thought it was more likely they were herded into a narrow canyon where they were then killed instead.
We parked and were excited to hike to the top. Well, you can't. And it really was disappointing as there wasn't really a "canyon" either. After viewing it neither of us were impressed. There are other "jumps" in Montana that we'll visit next year.
The sun and clouds made for beautiful skies on the way back home.
I know most of our friends are heading SOUTH, to WARMER weather, but we like to squeeze in some fall color and weather before heading back to California. I even like a little snow too as long as we don't have to drive in it. Montana, here we come!
