Spring in the Mountains

Its warm, sunny and green here now but less than two weeks ago it was snowing.  I had my hummingbird feeder out and the hummingbird was getting a drink through the snow.  They have unusual hummingbirds here.  This one is a calliope hummingbird.  He has a violet neck and the violet extends on the sides of his neck in stripes.  He can make his striped feathers stick out to make himself more appealing -- I guess.   We've been enjoying drives up into the mountains.  The snow is melting off fast and its making the creeks roar with water.  The part of the creek this picture is from is where there had been a fire.  Most of the trees were burned and are slowly falling down and with the steep banks they end up in the creek.

We did some morel mushroom hunting and found a few.   The areas that have recently burned are seeing the most mushrooms.   Commercial mushroom hunters come out in droves aroud the area because morels are worth a lot of money -- they can go for $40-$60 a pound or more.  We just wanted a few to eat so are happy.

Lake Cascade

We drove around Lake Cascade which is a dammed up part of the Payette River.  They had let a lot of water out of this reservoir and now are letting it slowly fill from more snow melt.  There have been boats out on the water fishing.  One guy came back to camp with two huge perch.  They were as big as small walleye.  I wish I would have had the chance to get a picture but I will be on the look out for another picture opportunity.  I did get a picture of the golf course overlooking the lake.  Jim noticed that the golf course had Par Aide golf course equipment.  Par Aide is where he worked before he retired. 

The campground is getting busier with some of the seasonals coming in and more folks staying for a few days.  We had a couple from Australia spend the night in one of our yurts  ( a cabin with canvas sides).  They road in on small motorcycles and didn't have any specific travel plans just want to see as much of the country as they can.  Sounds like us!

Warm Lake

We drove up Warm Lake road which is just north of Cascade and runs east up into the mountains.  Its a beautiful drive up into the mountains with lots of snow still along the sides of the road.  As you drive up there you can stop along the way and enjoy a natural hot spring.  There was a path through the snow to get to it -- we didn't try it.  I'm not sure why the lake is called Warm Lake -- it is not warm.  One part of the lake has a nice gravely bed where salmon like to spawn and you can watch when its happening -- not sure when it takes place but we hope to get a look.   There is also a lodge with cabins and a restaurant that is open year round. 

We took a little forest service side road and were surprised when we couldn't get far.  The road was blocked and said it was closed so we thought we would park and hike.  We soon found out why the road was closed.  It had been washed out.  The road runs alongside a mountain and there must have been some kind of slide that wiped a portion of it out.  We walked around it and continued on but didn't get much farther before we hit another slide area with the road ripped out.  There was a third one we could see a little beyond the second one.  The sign said that these slides had happened just back in March.  We wondered if they were going to try and rebuild the road or not.  There are lots more forest service roads to explore so we will have a busy summer checking them out.   

Tamarack

We started exploring the area north of Cascade.  We followed the valley up toward McCall.  It was a beautiful drive with mountain views on both sides of the valley.  You can see where the ski runs were along the one mountain side.  We think its part of the old Tamarack Resort/Lodge that went out of business a few years ago.  We hear there was talk of Trump or some famous actors wanting to buy it but nothing has happened. 

We've been working hard at the resort mostly raking and Jim's been helping burn it all.  They allow burning until the 10th of May so its a race to get it all done.  The river has dropped several feet in just a few days.  They are starting to let the lake fill up for irrigation.  It's hard to believe with all the snow still in the area that they are already worried about having enough water for irrigation. 

Arrowhead RV Park

We spent two nights in Mountain Home, Idaho and from there shot up to our new home for the summer.  We took I-84 to Highway 55 through Eagle, Idaho which is a suburb of Boise.  We were glad we went through on a Sunday morning because it looked like one of those commuter suburbs where everyone is on the road at once creating a huge rush hour.  Highway 55 up to Cascade and beyond -- as far as the town of McCall is considered a scenic byway.  It was a beautiful drive with a few grades up and down to pull and lots of curves.   The Payette river runs along the road and it was gushing down through the canyons.   You aren't supposed to have a trailer longer than 48 feet on this road so we are glad weren't pulling the boat behind us.  Although if we had we would have just gone up highway 95 to New Meadows and then taken Highway 55 down -- a much easier drive and still very pretty. 

 Arrowhead RV Park is very nice with river frontage (which is running very high) and surrounded by mountains.  They say we are at 3800 feet but it feels higher and the mountains around us are much higher.  The mountains still have a lot of snow so the snow melt will keep the river high for awhile until they start holding it back at Lake Cascade reservoir.  

We are off and running getting the park cleaned up for the guests that have already started arriving.