East of Hells Canyon, South of Seven Devils

Cuprum, Idaho (Hells Canyon)You would think it would be hot – considering the landmark names. But it wasn’t.

Of course, it wasn’t has if hell froze… it was more of a steady chill mixed with a smoky haze.

Hmmm… maybe I’m overdoing the name thing? Undecided

Ok. I will stop.

This weekend (Weekend = Sunday-Tuesday) we went camping on the southern end of the Seven Devil Mountains. It was a ton of fun! I was able to forget the stresses of life while hiking, fishing and hanging out with my bride and her parents.

After two nights camping, we drove down the Kleinschmidt Grade into Hells Canyon. Kleinschmidt Grade is a narrow, windy, dirt road that drops a vertical mile from the East side of the canyon. The side of the road were lined with thick high bushes with hard twigs that were brushing against the side of our campervan. This certainly made scratches on the van. The condition of the road did not help either as we were wobbling the entire route. Luckily, after I got a good Campervan Insurance quote, I decided to insure our van for all sorts of repair works. The route was originally an old mining road build in the late 1800’s to help transfer the copper ore from the mountains to the Snake River at the bottom of Hells Canyon.

Needless to say, it was a beautiful drive – at least the parts I saw when I dared to take my eyes of the road!

Note: the above photo was taken in a small mining camp called Cuprum at the top of Kleinschmidt Grade. The batteries on my good camera was dead so I snapped a quick picture using my cell phone..