Martin Lake, next to Bull Trout Campground, Idaho, July 27, 2010

U.S. Forest Service

Boise National Forest
Accessed July 29, 2022

Bull Trout Campground lies adjacent to the 100-acre Bull Trout Lake and 6-acre Martin Lake which offer great fishing from shore or non-motorized boat. The campground offers group sites for that special reunion or company retreat and equestrian sites for the horseback riding enthusiast. Use is high during the summer months and the campsites are usually full on weekends and holidays. The road into the campground is usually not clear of snow until the middle of June, please check with the Lowman Ranger District for current road conditions.

The campground is situated in a mixed-growth forest of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, which offers partial shade. Summer wildflowers are abundant.

Bull Trout Lake offers excellent canoeing and kayaking opportunities, as the lake is for non-motorized watercraft only. Anglers fish for brook and rainbow trout. A primitive boat ramp is located on the west side of the lake.

Martin Lake is nearby, offering canoeing and fishing. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout.

Many miles of trails can be found in the area, including the 11-mile Warm Spring Trail for hikers. The 35-mile Kirkham Ridge Trail is open to hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and dirt biking.

Stormy weather over the southern end of the Lost River Range at Arco KOA, Idaho, July 2010

As I recall, we got a pretty good blow out of these storm squalls, but not much more than a few drops of rain. Dry conditions are normal for Arco. It’s in a high mountain desert a little over a mile above sea level, with old lava fields to the west, south, and east. It’s only 19 miles to the visitor center at Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve. We lived in Arco from 1977 to 1980.

Composite image from three Pentax K10D photos using Autostitch

Apache plume blossom, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, Manitou Springs, Colorado, June 14, 2021

Fallugia paradoxa

A member of the rose family, the Apache plume, or Fallugia paradoxa, is a hardy shrub that can grow to 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. It makes an excellent hedge and grows purplish feathery seeds on the top of its small white flowers.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a privately-owned tourist attraction consisting of replica Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and interpretive exhibits located just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, on U.S. Highway 24 in Manitou Springs. (Wikipedia)

“Free Camp Grounds for Tourists” is the Welcome Sign from Maine to California—Outing magazine, April 1922

Outing was a late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century American magazine covering a variety of sporting activities. It began publication in 1882 as the Wheelman “an illustrated magazine of cycling literature and news” and had four title changes before ceasing publication in 1923.

Burning Gas on the Gypsy Trail

Original 1922 article
republished on Haw Creek,
April 6, 2018

Outing, April, 1922

By Katherine Lafitte

There Must Be Something in It When a Woman Can Find Beauty in the Prairies, Joy in a Cyclone, and Fun in Mudholes.

AMERICANS are seeing  America a la automobile. A few go de luxe, curtained from the dust in great luxurious limousines, properly chauffeured, valeted and veiled. But the majority of us get into khaki and rough it—in Fords, Dodges, Buicks, Franklins, Mitchells, Maxwells, Coles—heavens! the list is too long.

We are bolting carriers to our running boards and rolling our own—blankets, tents, stoves, lunch kits, fishing tackle, packs and baskets, water-bags hanging before and behind, and tucked in on top the ever-ready camera, for scarce an hour goes by without bringing something worth snapping. And then, you know, there’s that sign, “Picture ahead. Kodak as you go.” One can’t get away from that—nor believe it always.

(read the full article)