Buck's Gas & RV Park

At this writing, we have been here just over two weeks... into our two month planned stay.  We are figuring things out one day at a time as usual.  Buck's has turned out to be a fine place for us.  The owners Shawn, Courtney and Marla are very friendly and accommodating toward us. There are basic supplies available; lots of liquor, fishing supplies and bait and the typical convenient store food stuffs, no fresh produce or milk though.  Idaho Falls about 50 miles from our campsite is where we can get about anything a larger city would offer.  This makes Buck's kind of an outpost fishing camp, and the trout fishing here is very good.

Below is a shot looking back at Buck's Gas & RV Park from the NFS camping & boating area across looking the road.  We call the rocks above our "Cliff" and we can see these rocks from several miles away.  Interestingly there are some much taller mountains behind the cliff.  We are at about 5400' at Buck's.  The top of the cliff is at 6200'  Right behind, about 2 miles away, is Sheep Mountain standing at just under 9600'.

Below is Penelope and Romeo parked between the two Colorado Blue Spruce trees.  The trees give us nice afternoon shade without hanging over our trailer.  Buck's has about 25 RV sites and they have 5 small cabins for rent.  The cabins have bath facilities and Satellite TV within.  The RV park is about 2 miles from the dam of Palisades lake and the Snake River is walking distance across the road.

This is the view out our dining room window. The Snake River is right behind the tree line.  After playing our game from back on the Stockton farm of, "...we are sipping our coffee on the banks of the Snake River..."  we can say that for a fact now and not just a dream!

Guess who chilling is our front yard under the shade of the spruce tree?  Clue:  She's one Happy Camper.

We walk across the road to the NFS camping and river access area with our fishing poles most evenings as a little exercise activity and sight seeing as well.  Steve is fishing out on the main dock.  The water is still high in this picture, we had to jump over some of the water to get onto the dock to prevent getting a soaker for a week or so, since then the water has started to recede.

Gari has a Cutthroat Trout on!

We met a nice local fella on the dock, Steve Z. from St. Anthony, Idaho.  Steve Z. owned a Tree Trimming service now retired and is an excellent trout fisherman.  The first day we met him he gave us a smoked Rainbow Trout that we ate right there on the dock.  It was Delicious.  Steve Z. told us he marinated the trout for 4 hours in salt and brown sugar before smoking.  He said that put a glaze on the meat.  I noticed that he had left the skin on the fish and we had to peel the flesh from the skin.  Steve Z. said that the skin was where all the Omega-III oils were and keeping the skin on added more oil to the meat.  It was amazing and something we hope to try to do ourselves.  Below Steve Z. unhooks a Rainbow Trout.  He was talking to the fish and that made Gari smile.

Steve Z. has a fish on below; he is a pretty calm guy, and doesn't even get out of his chair unless it's a pretty big fish on his line.

This fish below got Steve Z. out of his chair!

Steve unhooks a Hybrid Cutthroat Trout x Rainbow Trout = Cutbow Trout or Hybrid... This one will come home for supper!

A nice Cutthroat Trout.  You can see the Red line under the fish's jaw; that's where the name Cutthroat came from.  Can't keep a Cutthroat, he goes back in the river.

Steve C. has a Cutthroat on off the rocky point...

Another Cutthroat ready for release.  They call the Cutthroat, Native Trout here.  The biologists are trying to reduce the Rainbow population and increase the Cutthroat population; therefore you can't keep any Cutthroat Trout, just Rainbow, Hybrids, and Brown Trout here.

Below is a nice scenic overlook on the Snake River that is just a few miles up the road from Buck's toward Idaho Falls (northwest)

We have been very pleased with our visit in Idaho so far.  Right now we both would like to return in the summers.... the winters we will leave for others!