By Dallin Saurey
My mother took me to Harriman State Park for the first time as a teenager. We went cross-country skiing, and I was amazed at how beautiful the mountains and trees were on the trails. The trails were challenging and unique. A horse back riding company can take you through the park on those trails in the summertime. They have been there for 70 years, since before the famous cattle/Bison ranch was donated to the state of Idaho in 1977. It was called a Railroad Ranch when it was purchased and developed by railroad investor/owner Edward Henry Harriman in 1908. When you go into some of the old cabins you can read about him, his family, and some of his famous friends who vacationed there.
When I was a student in a wildlife management class at Brigham Young University-Idaho, one of my classmates and I went to Harriman State Park for bird watching, to help her get birds on her list.
Another wonderful memory was when I was a member of the Wildlife Management Society at BYU-Idaho and we went to hear the elk bugling.
This state park has 16,000 acres of wildlife habitat in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. It has about 22 miles of trail. We rode bikes on those trails. We saw a coyote trying to take down a Canadian goose, and a group of Canadian geese chased the coyote off! Not one of the members of that flock were hurt by the attacks of the coyote.
When we found a spot to listen to the elk bugle, there were two 6×6 bulls fighting. They locked horns battling for hours with no winner or loser.
The rivers in Harriman State Park are well known for fly fishing, and visitors from all over the world come to experience it. Visitors can stay overnight in log cabins or yurts. There are no camping spots there so most campers go a couple minutes to Henry’s Lake State park.
Henry’s Lake State Park is a wonderful place to go fishing, because the trout are usually 12 pounds or more. That is “world class” trout fishing. I avoid busy holidays there like Memorial Day. The birds there are indigenous to sage brush, which are a little different from the song birds in the pines and aspen at Harriman State Park.
The Henry’s Lake trails are flat for walking around the park and camping by the lake. My dad taught me how to fish at the cliffs on Henry’s Lake for the first time when I was 5 years old. Our family would go fishing at Henry’s Lake during Memorial Day, even if the weather was very rainy and cold.
My dad regularly took my friends and me fishing up to Henry’s lake, and one day I caught my limit. My friend broke his fishing pole but ended up catching an 11.5-pounds cutthroat, which was his first trout. I was very upset that he caught a fish of that size, and on my pole!
What draws me to Henry’s Lake is the fishing and the Sawtelle Mountains in the distance.
“Fish on a slow day, beats a good day at work.” (I can’t cite the author of that T-shirt.) You’ll enjoy catching brook trout up to 4 pounds in Henry’s Lake and also catching giant hybrids, which are rainbow crosses with cutthroat. You will see people from all over the world go fishing at Henry Lake because it’s not a hidden secret.
The bate I use for trout are worms, any type of marshmallow, corn, minnows or 1″x 1” squares of junk fish meat, like the sucker fish you wouldn’t want to eat and caught by accident! Even going ice fishing for these giant trout is tricky if you don’t have the right jig. So, it is important to know what type of gear to use for fishing at Henry’s Lake.
Massacre State Park got its name from battles between emigrants and Native Americans. Ten emigrants died in fights that took place to the east of where the park is now located. The park is divided by rocks and composite volcanic cliffs on both sides of the Snake River.
You can find deep ruts in the old trails from people who traveled the California and Oregon trails. There is a visitor center where you can learn more about those pioneers.
The park offers rock climbing, bird watching, loaner fishing rods (for sturgeon, carp, and trout—no salmon because of the American Falls Dam), picnic tables by Register Rock, biking, horseshoe game posts, boating, and hiking. It also has a world class disk golf course.
My experience was recent, when my family needed a break from driving. We visited a place called Register Rock where travelers on the Oregon trail signed their names on rocks. You can see the pioneers’ names and dates on the rocks. There were two rocks that I, my wife, and kids went bouldering on top of. It was also fun to let the dogs out and watch them play and enjoy themselves.
The next state parks on our bucket list are the Ashton to Tetonia Trail, Coeure d’Alene’s Parkway State Park, for the bike trail. I would like to see the Dworshak State Park if my wife ever makes it down there for elderberry season. The elevation is only about 900 feet above sea level at the base of the Dworshak Dam, so they have nice weather there. We will also make time to see Land of The Yankee Fork on our way to visit Clayton Idaho this summer.
