| Campground: | Stanley RV + Basecamp Lodge, 12655 ID-21, Stanley, ID 83278 |
| Distance: | 9483 Miles. |
| Traveled Today: | 241 Miles. |
| Key Highlights | Seven Devils Campground and Lake, Heaven’s Gate Lookout, McCall Lake, Pine Flats Hot Spring Kirkham Hot Springs, |
This day could have filled three separate days in our trip. It was insane.
It all started last night – when the friendly neighbor from the next RV site told us about a place not so far (mile-wise) – called Seven’s Devil – and we woke up very early to see it.
15 Miles later, on a dirt road and 1 Mile elevation gain, we found ourselves at the foot of seven pristine alpine peaks called Seven Devils. 5 Mountain Goats were welcoming us from 10 feet safe distance. They were surprised to see the early visitors and escaped quickly. A short two-mile drive got us to the fire overlook station. We hiked to the structure to find Ron Bishop, the ranger in this isolated place that lives there just with his wife, from June through September, to watch for wood fires caused by lightning or people. He is using a turn table that is 100 years old to set the coordinate of each fire start and sits on chairs with glass stands – to isolate him from the lightning. Ron was a great host and showed us around: The overlook is located on the one side just above Hells canyon (where the Snake river storms), the Salmon River on the other side, the seven devils peaks in front, and you could see for miles and miles away: into the four states : Idaho, Washingon, Oregon, and Montana. The place is called Heavens Gates – and Bishop explained: “They were putting the Bishop to watch the seven devils above Hells Canyon, from Havens Gates.”
After returning from Heaven’s Gate, we enjoyed breakfast on the Salmon River and started our journey towards Stanley. Our first stop was at McCall- a really charming town on the Bank of a beautiful lake – we enjoyed to kayak a bit – but as our inflatable kayak had a hole we could not patch, we returned quickly to the shore and moved to swim.
Road 55 winds along the Payette river – which looked like heaven for rafting – and was full of them – but the devil’s spell came back when you turn at Bank to rout 17: for 30 miles, we were convinced we were driving downhill, while the river below us was flowing up-hill. When we asked locals how-come they swore, they did not ask themselves this question. It guess – Ruti and I were still under some sort of spell – as we both were convinced we were traveling down. I guess It’s a fantastic illusion (as the road accents, but it feels like going down as the mountains rise)
Just behind that, we saw a sign for hot springs – that were our first in Idaho – a fun circle of stones on the river bank for a soak. 2 big people that were sharing with us the experience told us we could not miss Kirkham hot springs – 40 min later – we were in the most beautiful hot spring waterfall, with perfect temperature, and fantastic location – having the time of our life!