First 3 days of our Canada Trip - Aug 4th to the 6th

The first 3 days of our trip were to get from Eatonville to Boise, then to Rexburg and then finally to Stanley, Id.

The best parts of the first day was going over Whites Pass just south of Mt. Rainier and then in North Eastern Oregon we went through the Blue Mountains.  Both areas are very pretty with fantastic vistas as you get up high.  Coming down from both the temperatures climbed up into the high 90's so we started dumping water on our shirts to keep cool.

The second day was from Boise to Rexburg and it was a test of our endurance even though the trip was shorter.  The temperature stayed in the high 90's and topped 100 a couple of times.  Coming into Rexburg was a relief as the temperature dropped into the low 90's.  We used a lot of water both inside of us and on us to make it there.  

We stayed the night at a friend of the Ardmores.  We enjoyed meeting with and staying at the Hochstrassers,  

When we headed out for Stanley we noted the mountains in the distance were very hazy.  As we neared Stanley we could see there was a fire off about 20 miles away.  The smoke and ash was obscuring the view of the mountains a bit. 

On our ride to Stanley we rode up Idaho Highway 75.  The ride is awesome.  There are wide sweeping curves in many places with lots of twisties in between.  The mountains on both sides of the river are very steep talus slopes. You pass through some areas where the valley widens out enough for small ranches, but mostly you ride down alongside the Salmon River.  The closer you get to Stanley the more trees you see.  As you round the last curve before Stanley you are presented with a view of the Sawtooth Mountains and a verdant valley that Stanley sits in.  Beautiful almost does not describe the area.  

We stayed at Stanley Lake Campground for two days while we went white water rafting.  The last night there the ash and smoke from the fire coated our tents and vehicles.  We woke up to a blood red sunrise that while concerning was also very beautiful.   Because of the smoke we took very few pictures.

Here is Stanley Lake before the smoke blocked out the view.

Stanley Lake.

I'll post the info and pictures of our rafting trip in the next post.