On this beautiful day in May 2008, we decided to head towards the Danskin Mountain Lookout located to the north of Mountain Home, Idaho. With temperatures at home in the mid-60’s and “lightish” winds we were sure to have a great day exploring. We headed north out of Mountain Home on Canyon Creek Road and made our way onto Foothill Road and finally onto National Forest Road 167.
Armed only with the general idea of where we were headed we slowly climbed into the mountains on a pretty nice gravel road. The traffic was relatively heavy on the Forest Service Road as we encountered two trucks during this 25 mile trip out there. There were 4 trucks parked in the Case Creek Trailhead parking lot as we passed by and headed east towards the Outlook.
The road after the Case Creek Trailhead became a little rougher but still easily passable by a regular car “if you go slow”. The views along this portion of the road are just a beautiful as any in Idaho so it was quite an enjoyable drive. Just as the road bears to the south as it makes its way towards the Lookout, a small but formidable snowbank covered the road. We had to stop and hike the rest of the way to the Fire Lookout. I figured the lookout to be at least a 4 miles hike from where we parked the truck.
This is what the road looked like on May 10th, 2008
With no intentions of making the hike at this point in the day…3:00pm, we decided to hike up the road. We just wanted to see what was around the bend. This lead to the next bend and next bend in the road. We were quite glad we made the decision to head up the road on foot. The views to the east were fantastic. Being new to the area I didn’t even know the town of Prairie, Idaho existed but we could see there was a town on a prairie off in the distance. Some day we will make it up to the Danskin Fire Lookout.
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On the way back home, the traffic was a lot heavier on Forest Service Road 167. A veritable traffic jam …we must have seen 7 motorcycles and 4 pickups on the road back to Mountain Home. As we started heading down the mountains, we came to a spot where we got a great view of the valley floor. It was pretty hazy but it wasn’t a stretch to pick out our home town from 1,000 feet above the valley floor.
Looking down on Mountain Home, Idaho
Notes: The gravel roads heading towards the Danskin Lookout are dry and passable. I was being sarcastic about the heavy traffic on this trip. From my trip south into Owyhee County where it has been rare to see another human, the traffic on this trip was relatively heavy. Also, don’t count on signs to guide you to the Lookout. Get a good maps if you really want to know where you are going or just explore, discover and have fun finding out whats around the next corner.
See all the photos from this trip by clicking on the pictures below:
Links of Interest
1. Boise National Forest – Danskin Mountain OHV Area Info: Has a pretty good map link that opens in pdf format.
2. Y-Stop General Store in Prairie, Idaho website: This store is currently for sale so I don’t expect the website link to be avaiable for long. Has a lot of pictures to view under the "Gallery Menu Link".
Thanks for visiting “My Life Just off Interstate 84 in Idaho”