The Seven Devils Mountains

Summer has finally stopped being mild and comfortable, for me at least, and the temperatures have been up into the low 90s this week!
Perfect weather though to tackle another 'must see' outing from our sight-seeing list.
Sunday morning dawned sunny and clear, so we decided to drive up into the Hell's Canyon Recreation and Wildlife Area to visit 'heaven', 'hell', as well as some 'devils', while we were at it ...

The narrow road up the mountain starts asphalted and leads through beautiful pine forest, until you reached the higher elevations where trees make way for mountain meadows and the road has become a dirt-road full of potholes ..

The last 2 miles are very narrow and rocky ..

Eventually you reach the parking lot of the Heavens Gate Lookout :

                                      

From here it's a short, 0.2 miles, scenic trail to the lookout.

                                      

   

We even came across some late snow ..

                                              

This high up the snow has only just melted, and the wildflowers were just starting to flower ..

 

We saw some Marmots, enjoying the sunshine after a winter hibernating underground ..

         

Finally you arrive at Heavens Gate lookout at 8,429 feet, where you have an incredible 360 view of the surrounding mountains ..

 

You're only 2 miles away from the Seven Devils Mountains, so named after an Indian legend of a man who, when lost and delirious, apparently encountered seven devils up here ..

This plaque tells you about the legend and points and names all 'seven devils' ..

You can see entirely across the state of Idaho to Montana's Bitterroot Mountains, as well as to the states of Oregon and Washington.

                                      

                                      

                                       

You can't see the Snake River down below but you can see much of the canyon which drops over 7,200 feet, making it the deepest canyon in North America.

                                              

We sat down for a while to have some coffee, and a piece of blueberry-apricot pie, enjoying the cool temperatures (49F!) and take it all in .. 

A wildfire in 2008 left behind the charred remains of pine trees and left a lot of open space. Always a loss of beautiful nature, but good for views .. 

     

Pioneers came through these canyons and declared them 'devils work', and you have to wander how they did it ..

We of course took the truck,

                  

                                             but some try the old ways ..

 

When we made it back to town (Riggins), we thought it fitting to finish our outing with a nice lunch at the Seven Devils Steakhouse and Saloon:

                        

 

We love their Tri-tip sandwich 'aux-jus', served with (fried) onion 'petals'!

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Because of the high temperatures I'm hiking even earlier these days. I'm trying to be out of the canyon when the sun hits it, because beautiful as it is .. it also gets warm fast!

For some weird reason we're seeing all these deer at the moment?
After months of  'no-show' I see one almost every morning .. oh wait .. it might be because I'm up earlier .. duhh!
The bucks of course have nice velvet antlers at the moment:

I even had this little doe come by the RV at mid-day .. no early day for her!

See those flowers? They're Mountain Sunflowers and I have my own cutting-patch here right in front of the old house:

Beats having to buy them!

And while the apricots are only just off the tree, now the wild plums are starting to ripen in several sunny places:

Since I'm up early and have breakfast after I come back, I munch my way through my hike picking the ripest ones in passing, and popping them in my mouth like candy. 
Nothing beats ripe fruit straight from the tree!

 

I will have to do something with them though, maybe freeze a bunch .. plum-pudding/sugar plums for Christmas?

                                                 

I baked muffins with the last of the apricots, added some shredded coconut .. pretty good!

As far as the house goes, things are progressing, although a little slowly. 
Besides having Austin for only half a week we lost another guy, Jonathan, due to health problems, so James is left with a small team to finish the big jobs of roofing and siding .. oh, well ..

                                                                    

                                                           

         

They're starting at 6 am right now to beat the heat, but these 90+ temperatures still take a lot out of you ..

Cooling off in the bedroom under the fan and the AC!

We've just heard that Ronnie (and his son Hunter and grand-son Ryder) will be here 2 weeks early, on the 31st of July!
They're bringing cabinets and counter tops that they're also going to install, which means that all of a sudden the walls (at least in those areas) need to be painted.
Fortunately the drywall is almost done, and some of the texture is on, so it's almost ready but still ..

.. it's going to be a busy week!