Two Weeks at Hayspur Fish Hatchery, ID

After some solar upgrades, we headed off to Hayspur Fish Hatchery to meet up with some friends we met online.

We hadn’t ever been there before… we actually never even knew it existed! There’s so many places in our Idaho backyard that we still are learning about!

Justin and Stacy Ford – who run their own blog at optingoutofnormal.com – are an awesome couple who happen to have a similar solar setup to ours. They also full time in their fifth wheel, which coincidentally also happens to be manufactured by Grand Design. Nathan met Justin online in a solar Facebook group, and they let us know they were passing through the area. We had enough space between plans that we decided to meet up and spend some time with them.

Hayspur Fish Hatchery is near Hailey, Idaho – which is also not too far from historic Sun Valley Idaho.

The Hayspur Campground lets you stay up to 16 days. There is water onsite, but no dump, and no electricity. There is a free dump in Hailey, however. For almost our entire stay, the place was quiet, with only a few other trailers camped out on the property. Nancy and John visited us for a weekend to test out their new solar install. 

Morning Fog

From the air looking down at all the panels

Relatively quiet camping

A shot of the Fish Hatchery

Another air shot

But then Memorial Day Weekend happened! It got crazy! I’ll admit it was fun watching them all go home that Monday.

During our stay we took Justin and Stacy on a day trip up to Stanley. One of our stops was at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. They just happened to be tagging (and clipping the adipose fins) of the young fish while we were there. We got to learn a lot about the process. We then visited Redfish Lake, Stanley itself with lunch at Papa Brunees, and then Stanley Lake. 

Justin and Stacy watching the fish

If you look closely you can see the fish traveling through the tubes

This is where the fish were coming from

Fish and Game employee giving us a tour

Fish waiting to be sorted.

Young fish making their way into the work trailer

If you look close at monitor 2 and 4 you can see the fish’s adipose fin getting ready to be cut. (they are upside down)

Nate standing next to one of the fish tagging trailers

Nate, Heather, Stacy, and Justin at Redfish Lake

Sawtooths

A few days after our Stanley visit, we hit up Craters of the Moon. Craters is only a short drive from Hayspur. Nathan and I hadn’t been there in a while, so we were able to revisit some memories.

Before going out, we all watched the informative map display. It explains the progression of the hotspots as they marched towards current day Yellowstone.

Heather points to a cindercone

Climbing up to the top

Looking down at our parking area

Looking at some old spatter cones

Justin taking pictures

An old tree with roots exposed at the top of the butte

Stacy taking pictures

A misty day on a walk through the Devil’s garden

Walking through the Devil’s garden

Nate and Heather pose

Nathan checking out the interior of a spatter cone

Hardened lava flows

Hardened lava flows

Heather checking out the interior of a spatter cone

After our 16 days was up at Hayspur, Stacy and Justin invited us to follow them to Yellowstone and spend a week in the area. That post will be coming next.