shameless bragging about the local scenery...
Some of these I took last week, some are older, but the mountains haven't changed much recently so they're still fairly up to date.

Mt Heyburn over Redfish Lake


Alturas Lake


Prairie Lake


yours truly on Redfish Lake


packing out a deer shot by 24hr friend Snubbie in '13. Actually a couple miles outside of SNRA

inside the wilderness area

Beautiful pictures, thanks.

Did also of firefighting in that area back in 1990, sure was nice back then as well

Thanks for sharing, but don't look so damn smug!

Beautiful place, and a boat is necessary to really appreciate Red Fish Lake.

The Salmon River and the Sawtooths a few miles down river from Red Fish lake.

Unreal beautiful.

I've hunted both deer and elk here for many years. In my experience, elk seem to outnumber the deer, at least I've seen a lot more of them. Until the wolf intro, there were native wolves here. My son and I once watched 2 of them running a calf elk. Now there are no more natives as they've been bred out of existence by the gray illegal aliens.

Little less snow this year.........this Wilderness Designation has me spooked. They are good at Taking but not so good about giving back. I can see lots of road and trail closures in the near future. Could make for another giant piece of real estate that is not accessible without a pack train. And road closures will result in much more difficult fire control. Not sure how this is going to pan out.

It is one of my favorite places. For the last 4 years we have spent about 10 days every October in Stanley. We have seen more Elk than Deer but no wolves yet. Probably because I carry a tag and a rifle.


mike r

We were there in'95 and wish we could go again. The pictures are gorgeous, but not like witnessing it in person.

great pics --don't stop


norm

Dagger Falls on the middle fork Salmon River about 12 miles as the crow flies from Stanley. That's a fish ladder on the right.

This rocky ridge is south of Stanley Basin but still in the SNRA. I've shot 3 bucks up there. The 2d pic is the biggest I've shot but not the biggest I've seen.





This is a weird one. This rock is about 6' high and is volcanic, completely different from any other rocks around. It sits up on a ridge in the SNRA 50+ miles from any old volcanic activity. I'd love to know how it got here. It's almost spherical so I assume it was a blob of lava blown in the air but I can't imagine it flying that far.

Glaciers?

Know of some granite rock about the same with nothing but volcanic near by.

How about a nice sunrise in the Sawtooths?



I ran across this while hunting near Stanley a couple years ago. A lightning storm had gone along this ridge and there were at least a hundred burns, most less than 10' wide. There were individual trees burned in small groves and individual sagebrushes burned. It was too wet for any of the fires to spread.
I can't imagine what it would have been like to be there during the storm. I would have been running to beat hell straight down the ridge.

Rock Chuck: Thanks for the beautiful pictures of my old stomping grounds.
In fact as I type this I am looking at a large framed picture of Redfish Lake and the mountains in the back ground here on my wall.
I took this picture back in 1980'ish.
At that time the Sockeye Salmon run to that lake was healthy - sadly I have heard of recent that only a couple dozen "redfish" are returning to this beautiful lake each year now.
If I recall correctly the Sockeye Salmon returning to Redfish Lake are the furthest traveled Sockeye on earth?
Could you please correct me on either of those points if need be.
Thanks again for the great pictures.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'll be looking for that buck's brother in October when I go visit family in Stanley.

Cool stuff RC. I'll be in the White Clouds next week. It's the only place I've seen that gives the Sawtooths competition.

I can't hardly wait!

Some years ago my son and I drove by the Smiley Creek store. There's a well posted pole fence along the highway for a short distance. There was a great looking buck standing just inside the fence thumbing his nose at passing cars.

VG,

Your memory is failing or someone was jerking your chain by telling you that there was a "healthy" population of sockeye in Redfish lake in the 1980s. The last "healthy" population was in 1955 after that it began a deep tailspin, even the ones that are there now are the progeny of broodstock not really natives.
You are correct though in that they do make the longest journey of any sockeye.

Hears is a link to some facts on them if you are interested -
http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/trt/brt/sockeye041905.pdf

drover

The construction of 4 dams on the lower Snake River in eastern WA sealed the fate of the salmon runs into central Idaho. They were built in the 60's. Between them and dams on the Columbia, it was too much for the fish to overcome.

Yep. BTDT, and now years later have a painful left knee from doing just that.

Its amazing how many yards you can cover in midair when running down a steep slope dodging the lightening that bursts the timber here and there with the smell of electricity in the air.

Lots of folks don't realize there was another dam below Redfish lake (Sunbeam I think) that was considered a possible problem to the sockeye along with the Lower Snake dams. Another thing not frequently mentioned was a program years ago to "treat" the Stanley Basing lakes (poison) with rotenone. And Agricultural water withdrawals.

This was the quickest reference I could locate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=j...0in%20redfish%20lake%20idaho&f=false

There are more references out there.

I'm not trying to argue with you Rock Chuck. The dams on the snake probably did " seal the fate" of the sockeye as you put it. They seem to have been in seriuos trouble before the Snake River dams went in though. It does seem that recently their fate seems to have changed some, not to a recovery to historical levels, but at least above the functional "zero" spawners they had a few years back.

And RC, many many thanks for the photos of such beautiful country. ANd of the llamas too. Way cool, and it gives me ideas of what I will need to continue backcountry hunts in my "dotage".

Disclaimer: I work for one of the projects on the Snake currently attempting to restore these valuable sockeye (and other salmonid stocks) to the Snake/Clearwater basins. Tonight I'm "babysitting" an adult sockeye that will make a trip to the hatchery with ID F&G tomorrow.

Geno

If you have any questions about using llamas for packing, feel free to ask. I've been at it for about 6 years now and figure they'll add a good 5 years to my elk hunting 'career'. They're lifesavers for getting meat out of bad places plus make for great back country trips when you can't carry a pack any more. Goats are another good alternative.

I'll try to remember to take you up on the offer of info when I retire in a couple of years. Of course, the little lady will have to approve of us retiring in a place where I can have them. She tends to think logically, like we need to be closer to doctors/hospitals, etc as we get older. I tend to think with my logic; the older I get the more I want to be further away from folks and their issues and be happy with my garden and animals!

I've enjoyed your posts/pics of llama related stuff over the years. Thanks,

Oh, I've thought about pack goats or a burro too, Lammas look cooler though

Geno

Great looking country.

Incredible.