MONTANA CANADA TRIP - Day 4. Stanley, ID -> Missoula, MT

Stanley was just too wonderful to leave, so we dallied. We had breakfast on Salmon River frontage right outside our cabin, with the Sawtooth Mountains to our right and an open pasture in front of us across the river. After chatting with our cabin neighbors, some bikers from Alberta, and our proprietors, we headed for a short hike at Red Fish Lake. Unfortunately the trail took us deep into the forest and robbed us of a last few minutes of viewing the Sawtooth Mountains, but at least we got some exercise.

Here's our breakfast view:


Idaho is a state of rivers -- big ones and little ones, raging ones and quiet ones, level ones like the Salmon in front of our cabin, and nearly vertical one which make waterfalls over the Sawtooth mountains. Rivers are the arteries of the state that connect one mountain valley to another, each starting as a lonely spring high in the mountains and converge to a torrent in a lower elevation. Since we traveled in June after most of the snowmelt, the river system was working overtime, and we got the best and the wildest of the Idaho waters.


We discovered some hot springs along the Salmon River near Challis. Now just a marker on the road, the springs were once a resort for weary travelers, built by Idaho's Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. We stopped long enough to dip our toes in the hot springs (scalding!) and which flowed into the Salmon River (freezing). There is only one spot on the river where the hot and cold water mixes at a comfortable. He

re is Jonathan testing the waters for the special spot.


We drove straight for the rest of the day and arrived in Missoula around 8 p.m., with almost two hours of daylight left (Northern lights!!). I found voice mail on my phone from my cousin Ellen, telling me about general plans for the week-end. It was wonderful to hear her voice, and to bring my attention to the reason I'm here in the first place. I'm looking forward very much to visiting my cousins tomorrow, to honoring my aunt Alice, and to meeting the people important in her life. Tomorrow will be a big day.

Addendum: 10/10/2009. Here is an article by Jan Morris, by favorite travel writer from Wales. She is so much more eloquent. Oh, how I wish I could write like this. Here is the link.

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Accommodations: Val-U Inn, Missoula, ****