After cruising Sun Valley Resort, we headed north for Montana. We went through Sawtooth National Forest. The road we were on ran through a valley in between the Sawtooth Mountain Range on one side and the Boulder Mountain Range on the other. It was some the most beautiful country I have ever seen.
For lunch, I stopped off at the Smiley Creek Lodge. It was a cool little place off route 75 at the base of the Sawtooth Mountain range. Like I always make a habit of doing whenever I stop at unfamiliar places, I asked the waitress what was cool to do around here. She told me about several lakes in the area and how to get to them. Since there were a couple of lakes that were not too far out of the way to Montana, I decided to check it out.
The first one I visited was Petti Lake. It was right where the waitress back at the lodge said it was. It was a small beautiful lake surrounded by tall pines and right at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains. Unfortunately, clouds were starting to form over head. The sun slowly disappeared behind the clouds and scatter showers were happening everywhere.
When I arrived and got out of the car and walked to the water’s edge, it was a little cool and windy. Not enough to warren a sweatshirt, but enough for the occasional shiver. There were several kayaks on the beach with a few people and dogs standing around. One of the gentlemen there approached me and asked if I wanted to kayak for a while for free of charge. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Even though it was cold, there was no way I was about to pass up a rare opportunity like this.
After signing a waver, I found myself cruising at battle speed through the cool clear waters of Petti Lake. The view from the middle of the lake was simply indescribable. The closes I could come to describing this experience was spectacular at most. An hour later, we said our goodbyes to the nice folks I met at Petti Lake. Our next stop was Redfish Lake which was just a few miles down the road just before the small river side town of Stanley.
Redfish Lake was not as eventful as Petti Lake. Nonetheless, the scenery was just as spectacular. Afterwards, I headed to Stanley because I had heard river rafting was great there. Stanley is situated right on the great Salmon River. The Salmon River is prefect for rafting. It’s not slow, yet from what I can tell, It didn’t have any really bad white water spots. Unfortunately, every hotel, motel, and lodge was booked up solid, so I continued on to Montana disappointed.
For miles, I drove on a windy road that went alone side of the Salmon River with tall hills and mountain walls covered with dark green pines rising high on both sides of the great river. The scenery was simply unbelievable. The weather was getting worse. Now it was raining, and I didn’t want to be on wet windy mountain roads if I didn’t have to. Suddenly, I came across this cool looking lodge with cabins that were right on the bank of the Salmon River call Torrey’s Burnt Creek Inn.
Torrey’s Inn was practically vacant. I had my choice of what I wanted. I got this really cool cabin with a kitchen, dinner room area, living room, and separate bedroom all for a very reasonable price. The owners of the place and I became very close because Bob, the owner, was a former beagle owner. He told that Elk were abundant in the area and after asking, he kindly gave me several Elk steaks to grill for the evening for free.
That night and the next morning was the first time on the whole trip that I walked my dogs packing a gun. Bob had told me that wolves were in the area and they wouldn’t hesitate to attack my dogs, but he went on to say that because that it was late in spring, that the wolves are most likely following the Elk into the high country. Nonetheless, I took my 9mm with me just in case. When I told Bob of this, he said that it wasn’t a bad idea because in this country, you just never know.
I love the idea that I was in this type of country, a country where the wilderness and wildlife still had a say on what lives and what doesn’t. In this country, bears, mountain lions, and wolves, next to man, rule. It was nice to know that such a place still exist in America.
The next morning I left Torrey’s Inn for Glacier National Park. I’m really going to miss this place. I thought it was the coolest place on earth. I felt so fortunate to have stumble on such a place. It was place where wildlife was plentiful and humans were few, and if one wasn’t careful, one might lose one’s life.
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