For our first travel escape in a post-Covid19 world, my wife and I packed up our dogs and headed to a cabin in the Idaho mountains towards the end of May. The cabin was in the small unincorporated hamlet of Syringa, situated on the banks of the beautiful Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, popular with whitewater rafters and kayakers. The town is named for a shrub whose blossoms are the Idaho state flower.
The area is in the historic home of the Nez Perce tribe, and Syringa is about 11 miles from today’s Nez Perce reservation. Scenic highway #12 passes by and is part of the route Lewis and Clark took on their epic voyage to and from the Pacific Ocean.
The community is small — only a few dozen homes and a rare business — but I was impressed by the pretty setting and how well-cared for this community is. A noteable feature were the antiques people collected and displayed by the road, including old farming equipment.
There were also old vehicles, including cars and trucks — even some boats, as you can see below:
I’ve a separate blog coming out next week featuring some of the many great old trucks we saw here, but for now I wanted to share these images from Syringa.
Below is a photo of the small cabin we rented and stayed at for 3 nights. It was very comfortable — seemed larger in real life than in the photo. Sitting in the hot tub on the front porch was especially enjoyable, as the night sky was filled with countless stars. And the weather was most pleasant.
The cabin is part of River Dance Lodge which is run by a terrific rafting company ROW Adventures. I’ve done several rafting trips with ROW in the past so can recommend them based on personal experience. They didn’t know I was a travel blogger when I’ve stayed or traveled with them, as is usual for me.
When we visited there was no rafting going on because of government CoVid restrictions — can’t really properly distance when on a raft — but I understand that rafting has recently begun. I hope to do some more rafting trips with ROW in Utah and Idaho in the coming years, including the Green River, Hell’s Canyon and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
Next Week: Trucks of Syringa
