The park ranger at the Bayhorse Ghost Mine encouraged us to, "Go to the end of this road and you will find a lovely lake!" Just four more miles on a dirt road . . .
A lovely lake. This is Bayhorse Lake, the larger of two lakes at the end of this road. If you take a right turn at the y in the road you can get to the smaller lake. While lovely, we thought this lake was small enough for us.
What a fish might see if they popped out of the water and looked around.
I cannot get over how clear the water is in most of the lakes we have visited. I suspect that one reason is that there are no people spending time in or around them. We are often the only people in the area. Of course, it is at the end of an 8 mile dirt road. Just fine with us that we are the only ones!
Their are two docks at this lake.
This dock is a bit wobbly at the end.
This is my favorite photograph of the lake.
I thought the path might lead all around the lake. Nope. It ends just at the end of the fence.
We had our picnic at the lake and headed back to the main road. Along the way the we drove by wild flowers and then a photographically interesting creek.
Once back on Highway 75 we headed towards Stanley and then Redfish Lake. Most of the time we were driving alongside the Salmon River, another opportunity to photograph rafters.
Rafting is a big deal in this area. I was so tempted to join their fun.
All manner of creeks feed the rivers. This one was large enough to get my attention!
This is Redfish Lake. It is a popular destination and filled with campers, boaters and fishermen. We had hoped to get better opportunities to get the Sawtooth Mountains as a background to the lake. Maybe even a reflection . . .
We walked down a lot of paths looking for a good angle of the mountains!
It was suggested that we might get better photos at Stanley Lake. So back up the road we went and at the end of a dirt road . . . a lovely lake. Not many folks camped out there and we saw no boats on the water. Much more peaceful. It was late in the day and the light was becoming more of a challenge.
Last one taken at Stanley Lake. Wildflowers everywhere.
Taken on the way back to Stanley. Tom likes this one with the fence shown. But, I just had to walk through the flowers and grass and get one without the fence.
Just a bit of Tom Foolery here. I was mentioning how much I was hoping for reflections. That was not going to happen with the strong winds whipping up the water. Can you imagine a serene lake and this rock reflecting . . . .
"No problem!" Tom can make it happen for me! We have a lot of fun sitting side by side and looking and processing our photographs.
We dined in Stanely and drove home with cards full and great memories. Thanks for sharing them with us.