Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Deadwood Reservoir Idaho, anyone familiar with that area?

We're wanting to visit Deadwood soon, my parents lived there while my Dad worked for the Forest Service and we're trying to find where they lived. At one time they lived in a small cabin at a fire lookout station . I'm not sure if the lookout stations were dismantled.

Thanks in advance!

You will not get over the passes into Deadwood until near July 4. We often try to spend the week before the 4'th at the lake before the place gets crowded. It is about my favorite place on this planet.

I have not been up in a couple years, but I think the Elk Creek Ranger Station is still active. It is just a few miles away from the lake. You will drive past it if you access the lake from Hiway 21.

You can access the area from four directions.
One: from hiway 21/Hiway 17 intersection at Lowman through Bear Valley. 40 miles of wash board gravel, but very picturesque. My favorite route.

two: Hiway 17 runs from Banks to Lowman and passes through Garden Valley. About halfway between Garden Valley and Lowman, Scotts Mountain Road takes off toward the North. It is steep and narrow, hardly more than a two track as it climbs away from the {North oops, strike that} the South Fork of the Payette River. But it is the route I take when time is critical.

three: from hiway 55 at Cascade, through Warm Lake. Deadwood is sixty miles out of Cascade. There is a couple miles of about 7% grade with several switchbacks on the mountain. But that part is paved. The last twenty miles will be very washboarded sand and gravel.

four: from hiway 21 near Banner Creek Summit, about 25 miles South of Stanley Id. It is as good as USFS roads get around here. But it is 41.5 miles of wash board gravel from the blacktop to the lake this way. This route has the easiest grades of any mentioned. And is the one which will go past Elk Creek RS. I usually take this road when pulling a heavy RV or have the pickup and camper with a boat behind.

Some fire lookouts are available as weekend rentals from USFS. But most are accessible only by hiking or horseback. You might check USFS website for such information.

Just what I needed, thanks IS.

I assume you mean NORTH of Stanley?

RC, yes you are correct. Banner Creek Summit is physically North of Stanley.

But it is Southbound on Hiway 21 from Stanley to Boise, which is the terminology commonly used when giving directions for road travel.

Try this.

firelookout.com/id/deadwood.html

See also "Scotts Mountain Lookout". It is just a few miles West of Deadwood Lookout. Both are South of the reservoir.

That area looks like it would be a great area to ride SxS's.

Yes, but you need to get a FS travel map to find out what trails are open for them. Mine is a 50" so I can use the ATV trails. A 60" will be limited to jeep roads.

In Idaho, we are allowed to ride ATVs on any of the USFS roads. (and actually the paved county roads, as well as state hiways within a certain proximity to City Limits) So one has to keep a constant lookout for families riding a string of four wheelers along the roads in this area. It is a popular escape from the heat of the Boise Valley.

It is a fun but dusty past time, especially if you are riding at the back of a string of five or six bikes or four wheelers.

I put large rides together every year. Been doing it for the last 17 years. Always plan my rides in Idaho. Main area I plan my rides in are from I90 south to McCall. Spend a week every year riding and put any where between 400 to 600 miles in that week. This year is kind of raising problems but we are working around them. Always looking for interesting areas with history and lookout towers.

Use to be mine also..Took my honeymoon 30some years ago there at a creek nearby..Logged out of Deadwood for three years with logging truck access through Bear Valley/Clear Creek and that Stanley road..No trucks from Landmark over the pass,my favorite way there..Pretty awesome..Over Scott Mountain was for weekends and going home for the flatlanders..LOL..Most of the crew worked out of Crouch which is easy access over Scott Mtn in a pickup.

I ate nothing but brook trout for a week there..They bit popcorn even..I loved that place until it got popular..Last time I was there,it was really messed up from all the people so I have moved on...

And still it is about the least crowded place in the state. If you want to drive in with a batch of grandkids, a camp trailer, and a boat. We typically do not see more than five or six boats on the lake during the weekdays the last week of June, which is my favorite time to be there.

The population growth in the Boise Valley over the last fifty years has pretty much fugged up any part of the state within 200 miles of Boise.

We would have been a lot better off if they had routed I-80 (now I-84) around the state of Idaho, instead of straight through our heart.

It has been 50 years since I have been to Deadwood Reservoir. Fun times with my dad and brothers.

You didn't mention the freeway from Boise to Lewiston. High speed all the way, right?

Most travelers on I-84 never see anything but sagebrush. They have no idea about the mountains to the north and south. I-84 is the least scenic road in the state.

Most travelers on I-84 never see anything but sagebrush. They have no idea about the mountains to the north and south. I-84 is the least scenic road in the state. [/quote]


I always thought that was the best part of the freeway plan. They saw the sagebrush and just kept going.

Idaho otta see what can be done to make the view from 84 as ugly as possible

The prettiest part of I-84 is from the Utah line to the I-86 junction. It's all sagebrush hills with stands of juniper. I love that kind of country.