4x4 Stories

Idaho Centennial Trail 12

The last spot I left off was at some corrals, at the and of the 4x4 road, the Idaho Centennial Trail has been a 4x4 road up to this point. Well actually there was one mile that you would have to walk or ride a bike, peddle bike or motorbike would work I think. We passed Anderson Ranch resovoir  on the way to the next part of the trail  I was going to do, I was going to do it   (north to south) insted of south to north like I had been doing ; so I went to an old town called Featherville

Idaho, t

hen went east about four or five miles to a campground/trailhead called Willow Creek, it had a bridge crossing the river going to the south.  The Idaho Centennial Trail runs right threw the campgroung, and keeps going all the way to hwy 75 north of Sun Valley about twenty five miles. It is single track wide, (no 4wheelers) you’ll have to take motorcycle, walk, horse or maybe a bicycle. The trail also forks about half way to the hwy, so you can go west at the half way point and end up at

Stanley

Idaho

. Anyway on Sept 25, 2006 we started by Featherville at Willow Creek trailhead and went south.

Idaho Centennial Trail 11

It has been so much fun doing the Idaho Centennial Trail, in my 4x4 with my gps, and Benchmark off road map. It makes a good story for  www.4x4stories.com   After turning on Castle Rock road, it had so many rock formations that we had to stop almost immediately for pictures and to look around.  I couldn't believe I have drove my 4x4 in Idaho for years, passing this road and never turned on it. The road was more different than any part of the Idaho Centennial Trail, just because of the big rocks. We stopped at one that looked like a human skull head. I .took a lot of pictures of the skull. I just couldn't believe it was there on Castle Rock road, which was part of the Idaho Centennial Trail. The rocks went on for around 10 miles without many trees any where, but then out of nowhere, groups of aspens started showing up. We stopped and had lunch in a grove of trees.

Idaho Centennial Trail 10

  I stopped and took this picture and looked at the map, we were only about two miles away from the hwy 20 and it was 2:00 pm so I new we had enough time to go another thirty miles or so.( I would travel back roads and explore all the time if I could.) As we came around this corner  we could see hwy 20 for the first time and we also seen a sign that said Idaho Centennial Trail to the left (southwest) towards Mountain Home.

Idaho Centennial Trail 9

  We come up on a grove of birch trees and It was so big and nice we had to stop and check it out, this is the picture I took looking behind us as soon as we stopped. I also took a few pictures of the grove of trees   as we walked around in the grove.  Don disappeared in the forest but I found him with the zoom.   After messing around for about ten minutes we started heading down the road again and passed another Idaho Centennial Trail sign,   so I new that we were on the right track. It didn’t take long before it had the desert look again. It was green but still the trees disappeared for awhile.

Idaho Centennial Trail 8

  I looked at the map and could see ahead, about 15 miles we would cross hwy 20 and go down a road called Castle Rock Road. I thought that sounded cool. Everything looked a lot different after doing so much of the trail in the desert with no trees. We passed this sign in a flat spot on the top of the mountain.  The sign was there but I am not sure where the trail to the mountain is, we looked around but could not find it, so I am not sure where Elma Goodman mountain is, I am sure it is near by. If you ever take this trip you will be amazed how beautiful it is.  In this Picture you can see off the left side of the road there is a white post, that is a Idaho Centennial Trail sign or marker. Also there are two birds flying in the distance. We came across this intersection   which would let you turn and go to Hill City but we did not go that way because I wanted to stay on the Idaho Centennial Trail as much as possible.

Idaho Centennial Trail 7

When I was finally ready to do the next piece of the Idaho Centennial Trail I talked my friend Don into going along with me. I promised him that we would not sleep in my 4x4 Suzuki Sidekick like me and my friend Paul did one time before, which was not to comfortable, being we both are 6 foot 3 inches at least. So we loaded up enough stuff to last a couple days just in case we had a problem. We passed this sign  on the way to the spot we left off which show the old way to Pine Idaho. We arrived at the spot where me and Paul and Kevin finished off, that is what the rock in the picture is about. It shows where we left off. We stopped and took a couple pictures and looked around for rocks (Don loves rocks and crystals) he is always looking. We jumped back in and took this picture as we started our journey. It was a beautiful day everything was real green and blooming, no snow at all at this point.  Idaho is so beautiful in the spring.

Idaho Centennial Trail 5

The next part of the trail started with Me and My friends Paul and Kevin in my little 4x4 Suzuki sidekick. We started next to the Interstate I 84 and Hammett Idaho and headed north. The first picture I took of this part of the Idaho Centennial trail looked like this. I did see one sign that said ICT.  The trail was paved road for about ten miles, we took a few turns and ended up on the old Oregon trail for a short distance. Thats when I could see the mountains we were headed for. We seen about 10 or 15 deer  while we were on that road. By now we were driving on dirt and it started feeling like we were away from civilization, all of the sudden the road just ended and turned into a trail for hiking.  Paul walked up the trail about a 1/4 of a mile while me and Kevin looked around and picked up a few rocks. As well as finding a dead animal. I Then pulled out my Garmin Gps and the Benchmark map (which is the best off road map) and found a way to back track and find away to get the top of the walking trail. So we loaded up and went back onto the more main looking road to find our way. When we turned onto the road that took us to the top we could see the mountains.                      

Idaho Centennial Trail 4

It was along time before we seen anything but desert, we were headed to the lookout above the Bruno canyon. It doesn't seem like there would be anything so beautiful out there but the canyon is worth checking out. You have got to travel west off of the trail a little ways to see it, but it is worth the trip. The last thing I remember seeing was a old car,   and that was before we got out of the canyon. Now, It looked like this   it seemed like it was the longest road ever, we did come across what I think was a watering station for wagons

or something, I am not sure, but it was cool after not seeing anything for awhile. We went on threw the desert until we thought we would never get there. Finally we turned to the west, it was the first time we had turned in about 20 miles, it looked a little different, but not much.   Levi took notes in the back seat, and pictures every now and then, as well as kept us in line (no beer) he also ran the video camera.

Idaho Centennial Trail 3

After about 2 weeks I couldn't take waiting anymore, I was feeling like I was missing the wide open desert and the longest trail I had ever been on.(Idaho Centennial Trail) So I took Paul and my son Levi , jumped in the 4x4  Suzuki, and went back to the Idaho Centennial Trail to resume where I had left off  (Winter Camp Ranch) It was a small old ghost town that probably had not been lived in since the 1940's, but some of the cabins had to be late 1800's. They were made out of rock stacked,  probably with mud. Whenever they were made, I would think they had to have a fireplace  but I could not tell. I went in and sat down in one of the cabins to see if I felt any spirits of any kind. It was just calm, real peaceful. I stood up and was a little tall for the roof, so I stepped out of there.  Next door was a cabin with buckets full of heads..animal heads, not sure what. It was kinda creepy even during the day. I did not go in that one but I think Paul and Levi did. I walked around what was left of the town which was two other buildings and some fences as well as the bridge and what used to be someones backyard. We also found a grave, to what we believe was someones pet. It was left in peace. What a beautiful place if you can find it...... smiles........It was easy spending an hour there looking around and seeing all the history the buildings had to offer. It would take alot of work to ever try to make one of the buildings livable. But the ground were nice and so was the bridge.  When I was here before It was to dark to see anything so I was pretty happy that is was such a cool place....................... 

Idaho Centennial Trail 2

For a while we didn't say much,  we were tired of being in the truck and it was pretty cold to camp, especially with sage brush to burn. It was going to be along night if I dint find our way out of where we were at. It was getting really dark  and the and I was starting to wounder if we were going the right way.  The next thing we know we came to a bridge, I knew it had to be the crossing on the map at Winter Camp Ranch. I crossed the bridge and came to a gate, it seemed like it was someones property, but we kept going.  We seen a sign that said Idaho Centennial Trail so we knew that we were on the right trail, all of the sudden a cabin appeared in the headlights.wow... it was a cool spooky cabin, as we got closer we realized that it was full of buckets. The buckets were full of skulls, I am not sure why we got out, but I wanted to take a look inside, I dont know what kind of animals skull it was but I felt a little weird standing out there in the dark so I got back in the truck and we took off (here is a pic of the cabin I took a couple of weeks later when I came back to continue my journey)......we finally found a road on the map that looked like it was the way out so we followed it with the gps and sure enough we were on the right road.......Rori said thank GOD there is a better road....the road was not for someone in a hurry so if you go there plan on staying a night or two...........