From Riggins, the Salmon River continues its path east to the town of Salmon, then flows south through Challis, and west to Stanley. It’s a circuitous route we won’t follow, but we will see the Salmon River again when we get to Stanley later in the day.

The Salmon flows for 425 miles through central Idaho, dropping more than 7,000 feet from its headwaters near Galena Summit in the Sawtooth Mountains to its confluence with the Snake River.

We ride south out of Riggins, leaving the Salmon River behind.

Today’s leisurely ride, all 203 miles of it, will be entirely in Idaho.

We’re on US Highway 95 for 35 miles until we reach New Meadows, a rural city of less than 500, on the Little Salmon River. New Meadows hosts the last surviving Pacific and Idaho Northern Railroad Depot. The depot was built in 1910 and served as the northern end of the railroad.

New Meadows sits at the crossroads of US Highway 95 and Idaho Highway 55.

We turn south on Highway 55, and soon find ourselves in McCall, only 10 miles away. McCall, established by Thomas and Louisa McCall in 1889, is an all-season tourist town on the southern shore of Payette Lake. It was originally a logging community whose last sawmill closed in 1977, when I lived in the Boise area, about 100 miles away.

We roll through McCall and continue south on Highway 55, riding past Lake Cascade and the town of Cascade. Lake Cascade is a popular summer-time fishing spot, offering perch, trout, smallmouth bass, Kokanee salmon and Coho salmon. In the winter, it has an active ice fishing crowd.

The town of Cascade, with a population of around 1,000, once had a sizable Boise Cascade sawmill. It closed in 2001.

***

We pass by hundreds of kayakers parked alongside the road. They’re gathering for a three-day whitewater kayaking event, the North Fork Championship. The three-day event is being held on the raging waters of the North Fork of the Payette River.

Highway 55 takes us past Smiths Ferry to Banks.

With a population of 17, Banks has little to offer. It doesn’t even have a bank. No ATM, either.

The North and South Forks of the Payette River meet in Banks, which makes it a popular destination for people rafting or kayaking on the river. The Payette River is named for Francois Payette, a Canadian fur trapper who was one of the first people of European descent to explore the Payette River Basin in the early 1800s. Before Payette and other Europeans began exploring western Idaho, the river’s watershed was originally settled by the Shoshone, Nez Perce, Paiute, and Bannock Indian tribes.

We jump on the Banks Lowman Road, and head east toward the town of Lowman, population about 40. Lowman is notable for having a one-room school, one of only a few hundred still in use in the US. One-room schoolhouses once were a common feature in the Great Plains and un-populated areas, like rural Idaho. One teacher, typically a young, single woman, taught farm children in grades one through eight in a small building. Often the teacher had only an eighth-grade education herself.

It’s about 35 miles from Banks to Lowman, with the Payette River connecting the two tiny towns. About halfway between Banks and Lowman, it becomes the Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway, as the road twists and turns in concert with the river.

In Lowman, the Banks Lowman Road becomes Idaho Highway 21, also called the Ponderosa Pines Scenic Route. We’re surrounded by Ponderosa Pines.

From Lowman, it’s 58 beautiful miles to tonight’s destination, Stanley. Seven miles before arriving in Stanley, we pass the Park Creek Overlook and Ski Area. The ski area has a groomed Nordic trail system, popular in the winter.

Stanley is a western town set on the banks of the Salmon River. It’s the same river where we began our day in Riggins, but here in Stanley, it has a completely different feel.

The Stanley basin was discovered by fur trappers in the 1820s. The town takes its name from Captain John Stanley, a Civil War veteran. He led a party of prospectors who passed through the basin on their way to Idaho City. 

The elevation here is 6,253 feet – almost identical to our home in Carbondale, Colorado. But Stanley gets much colder than what we’re used to. In fact, Stanley is continually the coldest place in the continental US. A two-decade long study revealed that Stanley led the nation recording the country’s lowest temperatures 522 times during a 20-year period, the vast majority of them during the summer.

Today, it’s mid-June, so the temperatures in Stanley are relatively mild. At least they are when we arrive in mid-afternoon.

We’ll check for icicles in the morning.

***

To view today’s route in Google Maps, click here.

My number today: – 52 °F (Coldest temperature ever recorded in Stanley, Idaho)

What’s your number?