Monday, June 15, 2009

Back roads to Idaho City



Back roads... gotta love them. I love going for drives, especially ones that include back roads. I love it even more when the route winds through territory previously untraveled by yours truly... and there are lots of those here in Idaho, mostly because I haven't lived here that long. So, a few days ago, my husband and I decided to go fishing and decided to head over the foothills into the Emmett valley and through Black Canyon into the Montour WMA. When we got to Montour, we were greeted with stinky, nearly empty ponds and an overflowing Payette River... not especially friendly to the angler. So we continued on to Horseshoe Bend and decided to take a drive from there to Idaho City along Harris Creek Road. It was a gorgeous drive; the wildflowers were out and in full bloom. When we got closer to Idaho City, we saw all of the dredge tailings from the mining operation along Granite Creek that was active as early as 140 years ago. We pulled off the road and Greg decided to try fishing the creek. I sat on one of the big dredge tailing mounds and sketched him fishing while Milo sat patiently at my side. Milo is my German Shepherd dog (and my running partner/bestest buddy/bodyguard). It was such a gorgeous day and the sun was going lower in the sky, producing excellent light that flooded the drainage in brilliant colors. The dredging tailings made me want to learn more about the mining history in Idaho, so I think I will be heading over to the Idaho Historical Society this week to check it out.

P.S. Greg didn't catch anything... better luck next time!

1 comment:

Coreopsis said...

Fabulous sketchbook page--I lived in Idaho for a year (outside of Ketchum) and would often go driving off on little two-rut tracks across the desert, up canyons. It's the best place for that, and there were always wonderful things to see....