Stanley, Idaho

We left Arco, Idaho the morning of the 29th of June heading for the Elk Mountain RV Resort in Stanley, Idaho.  Not really sure why they call it a resort since it doesn’t have any resort type features and it wasn’t even expensive.  It had beautiful mountains on the South and West of the park.  They had a restaurant and served free coffee in the morning.  They also had a good breakfast.  There wasn’t a lot to do in the area if you weren’t a fisherman.  There were several National Forest Campgrounds in the area and as I said, it is beautiful country.

On the way to Stanley we went to the Shoshone Indian Ice Cave.  It was a little out of our way but not too far.  It was interesting but didn’t really stand up to the advertising hype.  The cave is actually a lava tube that has collapsed.  Years ago, when it was discovered, people from the town of Shoshone would come to the cave and get ice for the numerous bars and also to cool food during the summer.  The entrance into the cave was through a small opening where the lava tube had collapsed.  They decided it was too much work to bring the ice out through this opening so they used explosives to make a much larger opening to the cave.  In doing so they destroyed the delicate flow of air through the cave which caused the ice to form and within 6 months all the ice melted.  Don’t remember the man’s name but a man got permission from BLM to try and restore the caves air flow and cause it to form ice again.  They said it took him 2 or 3 years to get it right and he actually had to build a wall closing up most of the opening that had been blasted.  There is now a loosely fitting door through the wall that allows visitors to enter and a small amount of air to flow through the lava tube.  This is a shot of the approach to the cave and then the opening into the cave.

They said the lava tube ran for about 4 1/2 miles however it has collapsed in several areas.

There was a fish hatchery at Stanley that raised Salmon.  They said they had 1.3 million fry, which is the name for the small fish.  They will release them when they are 5 to 6 inches long.

This is our crew.  I’m the good looking one behind the camera.