SAWTOOTH NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

June 23, 2013

This is the first time I have been to the Sawtooth Mountains.  My first thought was hiking, rafting, fishing, camping... lots of tourist.   I was wrong.  It is better than I ever dreamed!


INTERESTING FACTS courtesy of Visit Idaho.org

The Sawtooth NRA has four mountain ranges, the Sawtooths, Boulders, White Clouds and Smokys with 40 peaks 10,000 feet or higher.










There are more than 300 high mountain lakes and four major rivers, the Salmon, Payette, Boise and Big Wood.










First sighting of a deer is always exciting.  We saw eight on our first day.

We're thinking this is an eagle.

SUNBEAM DAM  (excerpt from the link)

The dam and the power plant were constructed in May of 1910. Power from the plant was utilized by the Sunbeam Consolidated Gold Mines Company at their mine and mill located 13 miles up the Yankee Fork at Jordan Creek. It didn’t last long, just 11 months, before the company realized their upside-down venture and the power plant and dam were sold at a Sheriff’s Auction in April of 1911.

In 1934 the dam was partially blown up. There are various reports with broad discrepancies outlining the details of how the dam eventually met its demise. One report, from the then-former governor of Idaho, Cecil Andrus, states “a party or parties unknown ran a dynamite-laden raft into Sunbeam Dam.” Another report reads, “In 1910, miners built Sunbeam Dam on the Salmon River east of Stanley, cutting off the sockeye’s migration route. They were thought to have gone extinct in the 1920s. But the fish reappeared in 1931 after sportsmen blew a hole in Sunbeam Dam.”

END OF DAY - TIME TO PULL OUT THE FISHING GEAR

Here is our campsite at Torrey's Burnt Creek Inn.  It's Sunday afternoon and we have the park to ourselves.   The owners went out of their way to welcome us.   More views of Torrey's coming soon.

Alright, it is time to fish!  I haven seen my gear since we packed it two months ago.  We haven't had time to fish for a year.  It was time! We grabbed our gear out of the truck and it exploded on our picnic table.    I couldn't find this and Ray was hunting for that.  Normally, we are pretty organized but this gear was a mess!  We were long overdue.

The day ended with us on the river.  We saw only two fisherman the past two days so we were not hopeful that we would have any luck.  What we were hoping for was the enjoyment of being on the river and casting our stress and worries away.

Success!