Idaho 2nd visit

 

Capital: Boise

Population: 1,300,000 (ranked 39th of 50 states)

Area: 216,000 kmē (ranked 14th of 50 states)

 

 

 

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Ride Report

This state: 1,873 kms     Journey to date: 6,329 kms

Scroll down below the route map for this state's ride report and photos

 

 

Ride Report

Idaho seems to have taken ages. If you get the impression the journey is meandering slightly you'd be correct. However this is all planned and the routes selected have been thought out long in advance to capture the best riding this part of the US has to offer. I'm sure that in a few states' time the memory of mountain passes and pine trees will be just distant memories.

Leaving Missoula the first assault was the famous Lolo Pass which is nearly 130 kms of twisting curves between Lolo (on the Montana/Idaho state line) and Lewiston, on the Idaho/Washington border. The road tracks the Lochsa River and by the time you reach Lewiston your wrists are aching. A couple of near misses with deer livened it up a bit.

From Lewiston you cross into Washington state and immediately the landscape becomes canyon-y, the first challenge being a steep climb up from the Snake River and shortly thereafter a plunging hairpin-laden road down to the Grande Ronde River and up the other side. I'll never look on the Crown Range road again with anything other than a sigh of boredom.

At Enterprise, now in Oregon, I took the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway through Joseph & along an endless wooded back road, well paved, to the Hells Canyon overlook. A small deviation to the town called Halfway but famous because it renamed itself Half.com as a publicity stunt. Camped the night at Oxbow Dam on the Snake River.

From Oxbow back into Idaho, another series of scenic back roads leading eventually to the Sawtooth Byway and to the town of Hailey where I collected a replacement cooling fan unit courtesy of Curtis Crowdson. The next day Curtis rode with me as far as Arco, passing the Craters of the Moon area where astronauts trained.

Today saw me reach the jumping off point to the Tetons NP in Wyoming. I did an optional 150km loop around the Pallisades as if I hadn't enough scenic byway riding.

Tomorrow its into Wyoming, through the Tetons and up to Yellowstone.