Greater Short Horned Lizard
We were headed north to Twin Falls, an area I know fairly well. From there, we would continue north to areas I had formerly just passed through hurrying north or south. Now out of the desert, we could camp near water, with caves to explore nearby. The spring brought out the animals too, especially the snakes. If you don’t like snakes, you may want to quickly skip down past a picture ahead!
We headed north on Highway 93 through the empty Nevada highlands. Between Ely and Twin Falls, the only major towns are Wells, and Jackpot, your typical border of Nevada gambling town. While there is ample opportunity to camp in the area, we both had business that required a visit to a larger town. We camped at one of my previously visited spots. I tend to settle around here for a bit coming south as Twin Falls is first area that is warmer heading south from Canada. But this time, I was not going to be caught by snow, as spring was in full swing here where we were much lower than our previous camp.
Camped by the canal downstream of Wilson Reservoir
Carolyn went off to scout a new camp after taking care of her business. I stayed behind, waiting for my limit switch to show up at the RV store. I was having the same symptoms as before where the heat would kick out as soon as the furnace got warm. I had already replaced the thermal limit switch before, but it was the only thing I could think of that matched the symptoms I was getting. With the cheap parts you get these days, it is possible to get a part defective out of the box, or one that fails almost immediately after install. So, off I went again ripping out the whole furnace and replacing the switch. At least having done it before, I knew what to do so the job really took only part of an afternoon. The furnace seemed to work fine again after this, so I chalked it up to bad luck, hoping I’d not have to open that compartment up again for a long time. Spoiler alert: my hopes would be dashed a few months later.
Mr. Marmot seemed fine with me taking his closeup
While dealing with the furnace, I had a bit of time to explore around the area I was camped in this time. While I had camped here previously, I had not had time to explore the surroundings as the winter weather shooed me out early. I did some walks around, finding that the animals were out and about now that it was spring. I had several snake encounters, fortunately they were Bull Snakes, rather than the venomous Rattle Snakes you can find here. There was also a Marmot, something that surprised me a bit in this valley. I guess they don’t mind living in the hollows of the volcanic rocks that were around, that wouldn’t be much different from the scree slopes they live in the mountains.
Bull Snake catching some sun on the cart path
I continued on north to meet up with Carolyn again, at a spot she had found on the Little Wood River, not far from the border of Craters of the Moon National National Monument. It was certainly nice being camped beside water again after being in the desert, but I had forgotten that water attracts people, especially fishing people who have limited areas open for fishing this time of year. Oh well, at least fishing people are generally pretty quiet, at least if they want to have a better chance of catching fish.
Wood River Camping
As we were camped within walking distance of the border of Craters of the Moon NM, I walked into the reserve one day. The lava fields start up as old eroded fields that are more like little hills with jagged rocks on them, evolving to full out lava rock faces you can climb onto. I didn’t make it far into the lava field owing to the deep crevasses I found. The first one was only a meter across, easy to step over. But the second one was deep and perhaps two meters at the narrowest point. I wasn’t going to jump as I’d say it was good 5 meters down to the bottom. Any pioneers would have detoured around these fields as the crevasses would have been significant obstacles to go around. But it was cool to look down and see the grass and shrubs growing at the bottom of these in there own little micro climate.
Arco has numbers carved onto its local mountain
We eventually had enough of fishing visitors so we moved on northwards again. Driving around Craters of the Moon was interesting as the highway skirts the edge of the lava fields, which are quite large. To my left was scrubby highlands of Idaho. To my right, was black rocky terrain with varying bits of vegetation depending on how old the lava was in that area. I eventually came to Arco, where I dumped my tanks and got fresh water at a local KOA campground. Carolyn was going into Idaho Falls for business, I was continuing north to scout out a camping spot.
Birch Creek spot
Turning north on Idaho Highway 28, you enter the Lemhi valley, a sparsely populated area with a bit of ranching and agriculture. The first bit of the valley on the south is empty, bordering on the Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research and test reactor facility. I could see the buildings in the distance – the area they are using is vast, and definitely not one you’d want to try to boondock on. Heading north, my potential boondocking spot was just south of the formal Birch Creek Campground, in an area designated for informal boondocking. The whole area is BLM managed. You can camp in the formal area with pit toilets, firepits, and picnic tables, but you’ll have more people. The informal area has group camping (the only thing you have to pay for if you want to reserve a group spot) and free (donations welcome) spots that have no toilets, but may have a picnic table and/or firepit.
This time of year, there were not a lot of people out, but a couple of other spots to the north and south of us did get taken. You have some bird trees to provide shade/windbreak at the sites, and the creek is right there. The Lemhi Range provides a nice backdrop when you’re sitting out in front of the creek. There are Pronghorn about. While there were a few people driving by, it was overall pretty quiet this time of year. The snow had melted, but the temperatures had not risen enough yet that snow was off the table.
There was a fair bit to explore in the area. You could walk the nearby roads along the creek, finding all sorts of spots to tuck in for boondocking. The motorcycle was very useful in that area. The extra range allowed me to explore both sides of what is a fairly wide valley at this point. On the east side, you have some old mines you can visit. There is a large cave you can see from the highway that has a steep road going up to it, too steep for my Grom to make it. But I drove up the beginning of the steep slope and hiked the rest of the way.
The hike was definitely worth it. It turns out there are two caves you can get to. One is easy, you can drive right in. The other involves a little rock scramble to climb up into the cave. Each is just a shallow hole, but with a nice view looking out. There are also rock arches above you that I thought were quite picturesque. It doesn’t hurt that the view across the valley and back down is great too.
 Second higher cave |
 Arches to the south of the caves |
 Nice view! |
 Steep up to the two caves |
End of the drivable road where ATVs stage and you could camp
The west side of the valley required a bit of a detour back to the highway to cross Birch Creek, then back west and up into the National Forest. The snow had just melted at this elevation and everything was wet and green. The area is not without people. ATVs were in the area, and a group came in to fish at one of the high mountain lakes you can hike to from where I was at. You could camp here, but it would not be in solitude. Oh well, not every exploration ride leads to finding great boondocking.
The Lemhi valley had been a great spot to spend a few days, especially with the warm spring sun. But a storm was coming in and it was time get get going further north. Might as well drive on a not so nice day. It’s not like we’d get a blizzard of snow, or would we? See you next time to find out!
