We awoke to another beautiful day in Oregon. Breakfast came with our room so we left the the Best Western well sated at 9AM. We drove to The center of Baker City and took a stroll along its lovely, 5 lane wide Main St. This city back in the late 1800s was the largest city between Portland and Salt Lake City. It is named for the only U.S. senator who died in battle, during the Civil War.
We left Baker City at 10 and headed for the National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.....fascinating!! The mid-1850s saw the largest migration in American history from East to West. Imagine making that trip over this rugged terrain in your Conestoga wagon with your whole family!! After a brief tour of the exhibits we continued on the High Canyon Scenic Byway to the Hell's Canyon Scenic Byway east to Idaho on Rt. 86, 70 degrees at 11 AM. NOONE on the road! Peter was in his glory: 2 lane road, up an down, many corniches. THIS is a road trip! We drove beside fast flowing creeks, saw a few sheep and cattle ranches, even a pen where men were practicing roping calves. Unbelievable high plains and green canyon scenery! The only town we passed was Richland.
Just south of Homestead we looked for our route into Idaho. We thought we found it but after crossing the Canyon River we had to turn north....we wanted to head south. No signal so GPS wasn't working! We turned around and made our way back to the Oxbow Dam site,stopped at a camp site and met some very friendly people who put us back on track! We weren't far off!!! As we drove along a reservoir we found a place to stop for a picnic lunch: peanut butter sandwiches and oranges!!
At the Brownlee Dam we crossed over into Idaho about 1PM. Temperature 77 degrees. The one town we drone through on Rt. 71 was Cambridge, population 360. Saw many road signs: Watch for Stock, Open Range, Watch for Game, Game Crossing. Driving through the Payette National Forest we saw of snow beside the road and the temp is 74 degrees! Our next destination was New Meadows where we hooked up with the Payette River Scenic Byway to Eagle on Rt. 55 at 2:30.
More than patches of snow now! Roads bare but piles of snow everywhere. We drove through McCall, a thriving recreational town on Payette Lake. Then more high plains, altitude 4900 feet, with mountain ranges off in the distance on both sides. Then forested land with white canyons on each side of the road and back to high plains!
In Cascade, population 903 and the county seat, we crossed the North Fork of the Payette River into more forested landscape. When we crossed the Payette on the Rainbow Bridge, the road began to follow the contour of the river. In the Boise National Forest, as we descended, the forested hills converged on us on both sides and the river began to rage southward. Even though we hit patches of high 60s, as we descended, we were back in the low 80s T 4:30! And finally high plains again until we reached Eagle.
Along this final stretch, 20 miles from Boise we could see some lovely homes dotted along the ridges, their backs to the sky!
We decided to bypass Boise and get some more miles behind us. So we got on I84 at 5:15 and still 80 degrees. We haven't done a city yet so why start now. We drove for 6 1/2 hours today, 289 miles, all on AWESOME secondary roads and scenic byways. Speed limit on I84 is 80!!! And plenty of "country air!" But not much to see!
Oops! On our way around Boise, looking for a hotel online, we discovered we'd driven into Mountain Time! So we arrived at our Best Western an hour later than we thought, 8PM rather than 7PM!! No matter!! We adjusted! Another Best Western, another salad dinner! Not too many steps today! I did manage to get 50,000 for Mon-Fri! And an AWESOME day!
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