We decided to leave Ketchum/Sun Valley on a Tuesday so that we would have the best chance at securing a spot to stay in the Stanley, ID area. I had 2 boondocking sites saved in my Google maps with a few more ideas of where I thought we could stay. We had heard how beautiful the Stanley area is and looked forward to spending a good week there at least.
As we entered the area of Stanley and Red Fish lake, we noticed a huge increase in people. We had to stop at the local Sinclair gas station to get propane and could not get over how many people were there. We headed for our first location close to the town of Sun Beam. After driving for several miles on a gravel/dirt road, we get to the site. It is taken. Ugh. We unhook the Jeep and drive around the area to see if we can find anything else…. all taken. And no cell service. What the heck?
Onto the next destination. This one was definitely a bit more sketch and another hour or 2 away. From looking at the map, I thought it was a paved road most of the way to the site. NOT AT ALL. We drove for 4 miles on a very washboard gravel road. A couple of times I was holding onto the door and praying the rig would not shake completely apart. Like somehow, I could hold the whole thing together.
We find a spot to pull over and leave the RV. We unhook the Jeep and drive further down the road. We come across a site and think we might be able to get the RV all the way down to it, but let’s just check a bit further down. Everything was taken! People everywhere in the middle of nowhere! We decide to go back and take the first spot we found. As we drive by, there is now someone else in it. They have camping gear in the back of their truck. Guess we need to move on. We get back to the RV, hook up the Jeep and start driving back up the road. The truck that we saw in that spot now passes us going out. Really? Sigh….
We are just going to head in the direction we need to go and see what we can find. People…everywhere. At every campground and possible place to stay. I still don’t have cell service, so it is a complete toss up as to what to do. It is way past lunch and I am hangry! We have to stop and eat some food and mentally regroup. Such a sucky day. After we eat on the side of the road, we decide to just keep driving until we get some cell reception. Then maybe I can find us a place to stay.
After 7.5 hours of driving, I find a small RV park and book a site online. There is no one in the area where our site is and it has hook-ups. So, we stay the night in a little town called Crouch. There is actually an outdoor amphitheater next door to the RV park and they were doing the musical “Beauty and the Beast” that night. Very cute to see all the families with little girls pulling in to watch that musical. It was nice to see people able to do stuff again. Small town America. Love it!
I tell myself that God must have a reason that we could not stay in that area. Stanley will have to wait until another time. We decide to name this day… “it’s taken”. I spend my very tired evening searching online for somewhere to stay starting the next day. I find the very last spot for 2 nights at a state campground. McCall, ID here we come!
Hiking Holly 