Traveled #9 – Lodge at Palisades Creek with Justin Hays – South Fork Snake River, Fly Fishing Lodge, Orvis

Dave (2s): Today on Yellowstone Tetons Traveled podcast, Justin (5s): They pulled the guns out. It was a red Chevys 10 with tinted windows, the whole, we were fishing this bank right next to the road at the end of the canyon. And somehow this car got by and the guy said, Justin, turn the boat. I need to get a clean shot. and he is pulling out this M four and racking it. And I’m thinking, I, I almost pooped my pants. I, I thought it’s gonna go down. They were chattering on radios and like some cool space phone all in. Code Red Eagle Blue Red Eagle, blues Sniper nine coming in left side south Dave (39s): Justin Hayes on one of his craziest guide trips ever. Cutthroat Trout, salmon flies twitching. And The Secret Service today on Traveled. Welcome to Traveled, where it’s all about the journey we are all on in fly fishing and in life. This is our chance to take a deep dive into a specific area around the country so you have a better feel for the people, the resources and community that make this part of the country so unique. Before we jump into it with our guest, we wanna share the love with our Traveled sponsor. This podcast is powered by Swing Outdoors and the Wet Fly Swing podcast and Yellowstone Teton territory. Head over to Wet fly Swing dot com slash Teton right now. Dave (1m 19s): That’s T e t o n and If, you get a chance to take a look and check out all the resources, lodges, hotels, food businesses, anything there you can support your are supporting this podcast at the same time. This week, Justin takes us into the South Fork of the Snake River and some of the favorite hatches and some of his best pro tips. Today we break down the river step-by-step. We talk about the best sections to fish. We get into techniques and all of the above. Justin has one of the Great lodges on the river, and he is just a, was a great guest. I’m excited to share this one with you today because Justin is, he’s got that passion, that visceral stuff that you’re gonna hear in a little bit. Dave (2m 4s): So, so time to experience the road less. Traveled. Here we go. Justin Hayes from the lodge at Palisades Creek. How you doing Justin? Justin (2m 14s): I’m doing great, Dave. Thank you so much for allowing me to do this with today. I feel pretty lucky. Dave (2m 21s): Yeah, man. Yeah, this is gonna be fun. I think like a lot of these things, sometimes it’s a little bit of a, a time challenge to get, because we got all this going and you, I’m, I’m just guessing you’re probably pretty busy cuz we’re, it’s July now we’re going into, you know, kind of the, we’re in the summer. It’s probably pretty busy out there. So we’re gonna talk about everything you have going. You’ve got this lodge, which I know has won awards, so you’ve got some good stuff going behind you. And you’re in one of these places, which is known around the country, around the world. As you know, it’s one of the meccas for Trout. So we’re gonna talk Trout, we’re gonna talk South Fork, we’re gonna dig into it. But before we get into all that, take us back real quick to fly fishing. How’d you first get into this? What was your first memory and then how’d you take it into running a a lodge Justin (2m 59s): There? Okay, so that’s an hour right there. All right. We can talk about, but I’ll surmise it into a two minute deal. All right. I was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We fished the Lakes there growing up for a walleye, you know, and pike and bass. And my family was the restaurant business. And essentially I graduated from high school, got a job in Yellowstone National Park that summer, got turned on to mountains to fly fishing, backpacking, hiking. Went to college in Wisconsin. Justin (3m 41s): got a degree in hotel, restaurant management, and ended up coming to Jackson Hole. I was a chef for many years and I had a mentor, this guy by the name of Brad Sutton. And Brad’s actually, he’s across the street right now. This was 35 years ago. Oh, wow. and he took me under his wing and it was an avid fisherman and hunter, and showed me the, showed me the way. And my first memory, fly fishing on the south Fork of the snake was with him standing in hip deep water in a raft that we had to blow up and deflate every time we put on and took off the river. Justin (4m 21s): and it was then, and I remember it as I’m visioning it right now, and I’m talking to you Dave, standing in that r waist deep casting to rising cutthroat Trout. They could, they were everywhere besides us, behind us, in front of us. They were actually taking refuge behind our legs. Wow. And I thought to myself, this is it. This is my path. This is where I want to be for the rest of my life. And amazing, slowly but surely that transpired. I was a chef for many years, as I mentioned, and moved to the front of the house, opened some restaurants in the area. Justin (5m 1s): Somewhere during that PA part of my journey, one of my waiter buddies, Dean Burton, used to come in from guiding and he’d wait tables at Nice. and he always had a hundred dollars bill in his pocket. Nice. And I was like, man, I want to do that. So I was able to, in 1998, I was hired by the Lodge, palace Creek here to be a fishing guide. And I was, over the course of 12 years, I dabbled in a little bit of stuff here and there. And then in 2010, the owner Marshall Geller called me up and said, Justin, the guy that’s managing the lodge now, Stan Klassen’s retiring, your peers are putting your name in the hat to me, the next manager. Justin (5m 48s): Wow. And I was so incredibly flattered, it was an opportunity to have a lifetime. And I said, yes, sir. And that was like I say, 14 years ago. And we’ve grown this little baby and instilled a culture here that we think, I like to think that our guests sense the, the staff’s enthusiasm here. and it kind of circles into a big, huge positive experience both for the crew here and for our guests. And our relationship with Orvis has really helped us grow and dot our i’s and cross our T’s and offer an exceptional product. Dave (6m 32s): Right. Justin (6m 33s): That’s a short story. Dave (6m 34s): No, that’s cool. That is a, that is a good short story. And, and I love the Orvis. That’s always good to get that connection. We’ve talked a little bit about that over the years. I think that’s one of those things that having Orvis right involved is that they’re, they’re kinda like another mentor, right? Like, is that kind of how that works? Where they can help you, where maybe you need help to make sure this is the top of the line? It’s Justin (6m 53s): Yes. 100% spot on. We work with a liaison, Tom Evenson, who they come vet us every couple of years. and he has given me so many great insights. And, and, and if there’s any lodge or outfitters out there that are struggling with their concept, Orvis for the, the nominal fee, they asked to be an endorsed partner provides so much support on every aspect. you know, they have a, a wealth of knowledge from all the different lodges they deal with. And they’ve really helped us polish this baby. Dave (7m 30s): Yep. That was really cool. No, I think it’s a, I think the partnerships, the more you get into this stuff, I think that’s what you realize. Just it, it just in business or life, you know, I mean, I think that’s, the successful people are probably the ones that are putting themselves around. Those people that are true are either ahead of them Right. Or or are good at showing them the way. Justin (7m 48s): If you’re not, you’re making mistake. Dave (7m 50s): Yeah, exactly. You’re just gonna make mistakes. It’s gonna take you longer. So that, that’s cool. So you mentioned West Slope Cutthroat and that experience, right? So you’re on the water and I’ve been there with West Slopes. I remember my first time catching one where you’re just like, wow, these fish are just, they’re amazing everywhere. They’re on the dry. Is that still the thing when you take it to the South Fork, you know, is that still what it’s like there? I’m not even sure. Cause I know there’s ups and downs with populations. I know there’s some things going on with removal of species. What’s your take on that? Is West Slope cutthroat still what it’s all about for that river? Justin (8m 21s): Well, we actually have a, a Yellowstone cutthroat here, just a little bit different little south of the, the west Slopers definitely still have them in the river. For me personally, that is the top of the mountain casting a dry fly floating along a grassy bank and seeing that slow lumbering take, waiting a second for that fly to become submerged setting the hook touching. And you’re in connection with that fish thing that we all as fly fishers crave and understand. Yes. The, the, the Yellowstone cutthroat are here. Justin (9m 1s): They are decreasing in, in numbers. And our rainbow Trout and our hybrid rainbow cut bow are increasing in numbers. And as a result, the Idaho fish fishing game under the will of the citizens of Idaho are trying to help the cut Trout Yellowstone cutthroat Trout numbers rebound and increase. And right now you can kill, keep, and kill all the rainbow and hybrid Trout that you possibly can. Wow. And it’s controversial. Certainly. Right. Justin (9m 41s): They have even gone so far to pool funds with Trout Unlimited and Orbis and the Idaho fish and game license sales to put a bounty on Rainbow and cutthroats. Wow. You catch one of those. They ask you to keep the fish, harvest it, bring the head in, and there is a number two size pencil lead chip in their snout. You can’t see it. We have tried our, our, the guides, not all of ours, but all the guides have purchased numerous kind of metal detectors to determine Right. Justin (10m 22s): Rewards. The rewards 50 to a thousand dollars. Dave (10m 25s): So 50 a thousand If, you bring in a rainbow, you get 50 bucks Justin (10m 29s): If it has the chip in the snout. Dave (10m 31s): Oh, right. And there’s a certain per what, what percentage of those have a chip? Justin (10m 34s): I believe it’s about 20%. Dave (10m 37s): Okay. So that’s, that’s not bad. 20, the 80 20. Yeah. So you got a 20% chance. Justin (10m 41s): Totally. And it’s not just in the big ones, it’s in the little ones too. It’s in hybrids. It’s in the pure rainbows. Dave (10m 49s): Wow. This is kinda like a, I I think of the, it’s kind of funny because the giveaway stuff we do on this podcast with trips, you know, it’s like people get a chance. Right. This, I mean, it’s kind of similar to that, right? It’s like, wow, I got a chance. and it, the whole thing is incentivizing people to kill more fish to Right. To help recover this. Justin (11m 4s): This is true. Yes. I’ve, as a Minnesotan, you know, we like to smoke ’em and my family likes to eat them. We allow our guests to bring one or two in. But I’ll be honest with you, Dave, we’re the outfitters are the ones that see these fish the most. Right. And, we have failed the citizens of Idaho and the Idaho Fish and Game. Those guys are sickened by the thought they have to kill what they make their living off of. And I don’t blame them. Dave (11m 36s): Right. They’re killing big rainbows. Like, like, because that’s saying rainbows. And you’re, you’re not talking browns though. They’re Browns there too. Justin (11m 41s): We do have browns. They’re not a, a problem. Dave (11m 44s): Okay. They’re not enough. So the rainbow, so, I mean, and you have, I’m guessing some big rainbows in there. Justin (11m 49s): Oh, baby. Big. Like, do we ever Dave (11m 50s): Monster? So that’s the challenge is that literally you’re talking to somebody, somebody like some clients come in there and like, oh wow, you know, I got a chance to catch a 25 inch rainbow. And now basically, and I, my guess is Yellowstone cutthroat don’t get quite as big. Justin (12m 3s): They don’t, they still get big. We get 20 plusers all the time, man. We had a one come off the river yesterday that was 28 inches put back in there. Of course all cutthroats get released. But yeah, we get some big jumping rainbows. Our guests have said, Justin, we don’t know or care what color they are. I’m paying big bucks. I want to go home with some pictures and some memories. Yep. Don’t kill that thing. Dave (12m 30s): Yeah, that’s it. I know. So that, that is the challenge. And I mean, that’s a whole, like you said, that’s a whole episode. Probably multiple episodes to talk about that, but Yep, yep. May we’ll leave that. I think what we’ll have to do is maybe leave that for a, a future episode to maybe bring on people that are, you know, involved in that, that whole process. It sounds like Orvis and there’s a bunch of people, but, but yeah, let, let’s talk currently, because I mean, we are actually gonna be coming out there this fall. That’s another cool thing. And, and we’re gonna be fishing it. We’ve got, we’re doing, this is actually our Euro nipping school, which is kind of kind awesome because it’s something that, you know, there’s obviously a little controversy there too, even with the, the comp stuff. Dave (13m 10s): But a lot of people were into Euro sniffing. Right. And so I just listened to our listeners on the podcast and people were like, Hey, we wanna do this. So we got to, we’re heading up there with Pete Erickson Oh. And, and his team. Right. And so we got this crew. That’s a great guy. Yeah. Pete’s awesome. And. we got this great crew. We got small little group. This is just kinda like a hosted trip. We’ve got six people that kind of paid to come on. We have one winner who won this massive giveaway. So we got these seven people we’re going there and we’re gonna be fishing the South Fork. So what I was hoping today was to dig into a little bit of the South Fork so people, you know, not only those that are on that trip, but the other people listening now that maybe are thinking about hitting the South Fork. If they can kind of have a roadmap to, you know, have some action. How’s that sound to you? Justin (13m 50s): Sounds great. Perfect. Dave (13m 52s): Perfect. Good. So, and I think obviously you guys, there’s a lot of great resources out there. We’ve talked to a number of ’em, but, you know, I think that, you know, after, at the end of this, just that roadmap is a good chance for people to just, you know, have a little more intel before they jump into it. So let’s start, I always like to kind of start when I can at the circle through the year. So if we think about, we’re coming up there, our plan is to come towards the end of the season. Right? But let’s think right now, so it’s, it’s July. We’re gonna be August, it’s summertime when people are coming in. Now is this take us there, what, what is going on? I know there’s a lot of different places to hit. What, what do you recommend if somebody says, Hey, I wanna go fish in the South Fork, what do you tell ’em? Justin (14m 30s): Well, one of the major things that people have to realize is, you know, we are just below Palisades Reservoir. It’s a 26 mile reservoir that Palisades Dam completed in 1957, is there for flood control and agriculture. So we try to fill that reservoir to 100% in July 1st. This makes the releases during this time for agriculture high. It’s difficult to wade fish this river. Right now, anything, we’re flowing at 13,200 cubic feet per second. Justin (15m 10s): Today, anything below 6,000 c f s, the public can access the bottom of the river. Idaho has favorable laws for us fishermen, where the high watermark from one side to the other side of the river is public. And once you get in there, you can walk up and down and wade fish. That typically happens late fall, meaning October after irrigation demand through the winter. This river is open all year round. This river is available for bait, fishermen, spin fisher, us fly fishermen all year round as well, which makes it just so amazing. Justin (15m 51s): We have about 4,000 fish per mile right now that fluctuates it. It was 5,700 here a couple years ago. But it’s always, you know, 4,000 plus. So in the low flow, we’re a amazing nymph fishery. you know, in the spring we use our worms and eggs. We just transitioned after big long winter out here and cool temperatures. We’re just transitioning now to our dry flies. Dry dropper, typically Dave. This is like, what? It’s the 10th of July. Justin (16m 32s): This is like the bullseye for salmon flies. Oh, Dave (16m 36s): It is. So this is usually salmon fly right now. Justin (16m 38s): It is today. And maybe the guy, you know, we had 12 bolts go this morning. I’ll get the report eagerly waiting for the return. It’s supposed to explode any second. Oh wow. We’re looking for 56 degree water temps. We’re there, but it’s, it just hasn’t erupted yet. We’re, we’ve got PMDs, little pinkies, we’ve got a little size eight golden stone, or excuse me, size 16 golden stone. And then we have these number two, Tara nais, California, these salmon flies, which are breakfast, lunch, and dinners, you know? Justin (17m 20s): Yep. Yeah. And they’re, they’re moving, we’re we’re getting ’em on the nymphs really good right now. Of course, you know, we’re a drift fishery, so we’re, we’re floating down the banks and trying to hit some deep runs, tucking our dry droppers. And we’re doing a, a large salmon fly dry right now, hanging off probably 16 inches below two little, oh. Either a, you know, golden stone nymph or a PMD nymph. I cast to some emerging, some cudi eating some emerging PMDs three days ago, which just warms my hearts watching these fish Darst around just subsurface with the rocks below and the gin clear water. Justin (18m 8s): Wow. And the bugs are flying and emerging. And they specifically targeted this one part of that life cycle when they were just emerging into the surface film. Oh, right. Beautiful. Dave (18m 21s): Wow. And these were the Yellowstone Cuties, Justin (18m 24s): The Yellowstone cut these Yep. Dave (18m 25s): Yeah. Whi which are similar, which are very, are they very similar to the West Slope as far as their ac action on the They are, yeah. Justin (18m 31s): Yep. In cold water like it is right now. They fight, like I’ll get out, splash around, jump kind sometime, get a bad rap for being lazy or sluggish. Man, I’ve only seen that when the water gets really warm in late August in a low water a year. But those, they, they tug now plus in, in that current bend that rod baby, it’s so awesome. Dave (18m 55s): Right. Yeah, because the the, because the, like you said, this is not small water. This is big. What, what would be the low, what would be, say October, early October? What would flows look like then? Justin (19m 5s): Oh, anywhere between six and 3000 C Fs. By the end of October we hit our winter flow target and it’s 900 c f s through the winter, through the Dave (19m 18s): Winter. So pretty, and that’s the cool thing about having the Tailwater, is that they can keep it standard so it’s not dropping down to a hundred. Justin (19m 24s): You got it. You got it. We’re fighting for even a couple more hundred CFS organizations like the Henry’s Fork Foundation, the South Fork Initiative. We’re really trying to work with ag. They’ve made some great progress up on the Henry’s Fork and we’re hoping to kind of follow in their footsteps and work with ag. Certainly, you know what we realize fighting isn’t the solution. Yeah, Dave (19m 49s): That’s right. Justin (19m 50s): But managing together and working together, we can make sure that those families get what they need. And us recreate Eagles can get our side too. Dave (19m 59s): Exactly. I think that’s the thing that, you know, I think we, we all, we all are learning, right? And, we all should learn. you know, you look at the, the national politics and stuff and it’s like, man, this is a great example of a mini version, right? It’s like if you’re fighting ag against whoever Right. Against the fishermen back and forth. I mean, it’s just never gonna be a win. And, and eventually the stuff goes into lawsuits. Right. And then it’s even worse. Totally. And that’s the cool thing about what I’m hearing. I And we had the Henrys Fork Foundation on, we did an episode with them. We’ll put a link in the show notes to that. It was a great one. And, and that’s the same thing we heard there is like, hey, we’re, we’re working together. you know, it’s not perfect, but like, that’s, that’s the way we’re gonna get this done. So I think that’s pretty cool to hear. Justin (20m 37s): It’s nice to know too. I think once you kind of take the armor off, there’s a lot of people, farmers, If, you will, people involved in ag sprinklers, canal companies, they like to fish too. Dave (20m 49s): Exactly. Justin (20m 50s): You know, and if we can approach the conversation in a non-threatening way, it can be a win-win for, for both really. You just gotta talk it out. Dave (21m 2s): I agree. I agree. That’s awesome. Well, Justin (21m 3s): And get science involved. Dave (21m 5s): Yeah. Well that’s the thing. I mean, you definitely need, you need the science. And I think the cool thing is, is that we don’t know everything. So I think there’s a lot of, part of the discussion is that they, you you learn stuff and you’re like, oh, and they learn stuff. It’s like, oh, okay, we could actually do this type of different water withdrawal and it actually maybe benefits us and benefits the fish. you know, that’s the tech stuff and the science that actually is the Great part of it. Justin (21m 26s): It’s interesting to me how you said it, how little we actually really do know. Yep. you know, we, my fishing guys, they’re co they’re experts in their field and like to think they understand biology and life cycles. Sometimes I think once we present scientific information, we can guide them into a different way of thinking about the resource. You look about, you know, what’s happening in Yellowstone Lake with the Lake Trout invasion up there and they’re making great steps to get the cutthroat restored and the lake throat numbers reduced and that, that fishery is, it’s gonna come back. Justin (22m 10s): But boy did it cost a lot of money. Oh Dave (22m 12s): Yeah. Yeah. That’s some, some big Justin (22m 14s): Bucks. But science. Dave (22m 14s): Exactly. We’re learning. Justin (22m 16s): We, let’s Dave (22m 17s): Look at the, so you mentioned, and we’re talking, obviously, these are two things. We got the Henry’s Fork, the South Fork Snake. Let’s bring it back. Cause we’ve done a lot on the Henry’s Fork. Take us to just the river and let’s, again, somebody’s brand new. They don’t know this. Where does the, where does the Henry’s Fork, how does it connect with the South Fork? you know, and talk about that a little bit just to put us in perspective. And then where are your, where are your lodges? Justin (22m 37s): Right. So the Snake River or River Eight originates in Southern Yellowstone National Park. It flows through Jackson Hole, about 47 miles. We’ve referred to that as the Upper Snake. It confluences with another trip called the Ho Back. And then flows through about 25 miles of the Snake River Canyon into Palisades Reservoir. And at that spot it leaves Wyoming and it enters Idaho. As the river comes out of Palisades Reservoir, we start to refer to it as the South Fork. Lots of people don’t understand or know that the Henry’s Fork originally was called the North Fork. Justin (23m 23s): Mm. And we are the South Fork. The South Fork flows for about 66 miles from Palisades Dam to the Confluence with the Henry’s Fork. And then that happens just above Idaho Falls. Idaho And. we refer to the river after that as the main snake. Dave (23m 43s): Yeah. That’s it. So that’s a confluence. That’s the big confluence. Justin (23m 47s): Yep. Out to the ocean. Dave (23m 49s): That’s it. That’s the cool thing again about this big picture bit thing because you, you zoom in on where you guys are at, you know, at the lodge, which is right at just kind of just what North of Palisades, the actual town? Justin (23m 59s): Yeah. We’re just a little north of the town of Palisades that’s mostly comprised of people that work at the dam. We’re four miles below Palisades Dam in the town of Irwin, which is in Swan Valley. Idaho about 62 miles from Jackson Hole and 49 miles from Idaho Falls. Idaho. Dave (24m 20s): Right. That’s it. So there’s, so it’s a big, it’s cool because it’s a big river. And even If you look bigger picture. I mean, the cool thing is, yeah, you start up in, you know, Yellowstone National Park, it kind of flows out of this amazing place. And then, I mean, the Snake Rivers, this massive river that flows through Idaho and eventually all the way out, you know, into the Columbia. And we’ve done a lot of episodes up in the Upper Columbia. I mean, it’s just this, I mean, basically it’s draining. When you look at, when you scan out in the US it’s draining like a whole north northwestern part of the United States essentially. Justin (24m 49s): It really is. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Dave (24m 50s): Yeah. So it’s this cool thing. And you guys are right on the cusp of the, the continental divide. Right? How far is that? Where do you, how far do you have to go again for people that are new, maybe listening on this, how far to get over to the other side of the Continental divide? Where is that? Justin (25m 3s): The closest part probably of getting across the continental divide would be up at Henry’s Lake, which is about a two and a half hour drive. Reynolds pass over there is on the divide. You also can access the, the divide down by Pinedale, Wyoming in the Green River and South Pass down there we’re, yeah, we’re West Slope. We’re west facing. Dave (25m 29s): So here’s a question, this is just kind of a random question I, I just was thinking about. So the interesting thing is, you know, Steelhead is, you know, we’ve done a lot of Steelhead stuff and you know, Steelhead historically, I’m guessing, I don’t even know, did they historically come up into that area? Or were there natural barriers that maybe Idaho Falls, was it Natural Falls or something? Justin (25m 47s): Sure. It’s actually Shone Falls. Oh, shone. Right. It’s a natural barrier. Kind of close to Twin Falls. Burley Idaho down there. So we never had the You never Dave (25m 57s): Had ’em? Justin (25m 58s): No. The the ocean creatures. You Dave (26m 1s): Never had ’em. But the cool thing is, is well, and again, I, I don’t know, but you know, you, you’ve got the rainbows in there that were planted. That’s the whole thing. They planted those back in the day just because, you know, why not? Right. The rainbows planted Justin (26m 12s): ’em everywhere. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Yeah. Dave (26m 14s): Yeah. Okay. All right. So we got that. So we got a little bit on where you guys are at and your lodge. So if somebody was coming in here and they wanted to fish, let’s just say they had a drift boat, is there a big difference between, Hey, I got a drift boat. I don’t, on what parts of the river you would, you would recommend they fish? Justin (26m 28s): Certainly. I mean, you know, number one, you want to have some experience on your drift boat. We don’t have a lot of, you know, class five rapids. We have none. But there’s a couple, just a couple turns and some hydraulics and some bridges. You wanna be proficient. We had a couple, three guys in a, a drift boat about a week ago. I don’t know what happened. They just lost. They went into a great feeder diversion. Luckily they were okay. The boat made it out. Oh wow. But it was very dangerous. Justin (27m 8s): And I think by looking at a video, they got hung up. Tie or untangling something, maybe an or pop out of the or lock I i there I saw of a video of this incident. So some, if you’ve got some experience, a year of experience and you can read water and you’re, and you’re wise and stay in the thou wagon. Yep. You’ll can fish this river. No problem. Okay. And there’s plenty of fabulous camping. you know, kinda me answering your question about the South Fork, we divide the river, the, the state does from an outfitting perspective in into five sections. Each section is roughly 12 miles long. Justin (27m 51s): The upper first section has five a access points. Plenty of parking, plenty of shuttle companies developed ramps. It’s a, a great place to start fishing. It’s tamer flow. Les bends after that 12 mile first section there. And is Dave (28m 12s): This Justin, just to interrupt you for, is this the Yeah, the upper, does that start at the base of Palisades? Yes, Justin (28m 17s): It does. Dave (28m 18s): Near, yeah. Near the town. Near Palisade or the little town there? Yeah. Justin (28m 21s): Yep, yep. Okay. Right there. There’s a easy to find access point right at the dam. And yeah, in that upper section we have this amazing waterfall called the Fall Creek Falls. Very popular, very scenic, fun to swim. It makes a lot of people’s memories and, and their picture galleries for sure. The second and third sections, the next 24 miles after the first section is our canyon section. And Dave, I can’t wait for you to come out and see it. It is incredibly gorgeous. It is great fishing, no signs of humanity. Oh wow. No homes. Wow. Justin (29m 1s): No roads killer campsites. That is regulated. They ask you to have a a, a burn pan and a and a potty situation. Sure, sure. But still free to camp. Just gotta register first come first serve. That’s amazing. And the fishing in these second and third sections, the river starts to braid more. There’s more features. Log jams, there’s more dropoffs, undercut banks grassy. And this is where the salmon fly hatch is today. Dave (29m 34s): Oh, right. So that’s Oh, it’s moving its way Is it moving its way up river or Justin (29m 37s): Down? It is, yeah. Yeah. On our system, generally speaking because all of this is part science, part myth, part, you know. Right. It’s about four miles a day. Generally it moves up. Okay. And it’s moving little slowly through the canyon this year, which is great. That’s gonna extend our opportunities. Fishing with big dry flies. And then the fourth section is, begins near the town of Rie and it goes another 12 miles and kind of enters this ag flat. You can’t tell cuz the, the, the farmers have left the trees up or, or amazing cottonwood galleries. Justin (30m 20s): Some of the largest in the western United States are in this section down here. Even more braiding, even more trash piles, trash Of course meaning not garbage. Yeah. But wood stumps and wood and debris all happy places for Oh yeah. Our Trout friends. And it’s fun to target these, these casts into these and behind these areas. It gets a little technical. It’s fun to anticipate. Wow. And see, ooh, there’s a, a slot down here by this dead tree. There gotta be in there. And you lay your cast at the hot top of that lit. Dave (30m 57s): And you’re doing this as your drift. This is all out of the boat. Justin (30m 60s): Totally. Dave (31m 1s): Yeah. Gotcha. Justin (31m 2s): Wow. Yeah, there are islands and gravel bars to get on and, and do that type of fishing as well. But generally speaking, we’re, we stop a little bit here and there for lunches and let people walk around. But we’re, we’re fishing outta the drift boat. Dave (31m 18s): Yep. Yeah. You’re outta the drift boat. This is cool. Yeah. So that’s the three. So that’s the, and I’m trying to figure out, like, just looking here, so when would the, the next four, the fourth section where, what would be the nearest town where that begins? Justin (31m 29s): Yeah. That tends to start near Rri and then go down to the Lorenzo Bridge. Oh yeah. Highway 2020. Right. And just, just past the Lorenzo Bridge on that fifth section, which is only about six or seven miles. Lorenzo to Manan. That’s where the confluence with the, the Henrys happens. Gotcha. And there’s a lot of calmer basalt down there and lava. Okay. And kinda gets out into a desert right there. Still good fishing. Dave (32m 2s): Right on. And I’m looking, I just rambling. I was looking at the map, I was like, okay, you got Yellowstone bear world. That looks interesting. I Justin (32m 8s): Mean, I’ve got two kids, 11 and eight year old. We do it every year because Oh really? When can you go drive up to a bunch of bears and a Yeah. Bunch of cool elk. And it’s, it is kind of gimmicky. Sure. But it’s really popular because you are not guaranteed see animals If, you go to Yellowstone. Oh right. And this outfit allows you to feed these bears. They have these special trucks that elevate you and protect you. Dave (32m 36s): Oh wow. Justin (32m 37s): It’s, it’s, it’s cool to do once a year. Dave (32m 40s): I have to add, I’ve been thinking maybe putting together a trip with the family and the kids and I think that there’s some cool stuff. This might be, have to be one of those destinations we Swing by right off the highway. Right, right off 20. Yeah. Justin (32m 50s): Dave you mean If you come, how old are your kids? Dave (32m 52s): Nine and 11. Oh, Justin (32m 53s): Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. W we we got that. Yeah. So take ’em whitewater rafting for sure. Yeah. And you gotta go check out Bear World. It’s a great half day thing. There’s he sea hot springs with zip line around here. Yeah. Horseback tours go. Yeah. Dave (33m 9s): That’s the cool thing about what you realize that I’ve been, I’ve been doing a lot of the Eastern Idaho stuff here and Yeah, I mean it’s cool because it’s not just the fishing. I mean you, you’ve, and there is obviously some cool places, but all sorts of different stuff. It’s really just Outdoor, it’s all these Outdoor activities. It feels like that that’s, yep. It’s pretty diverse. Is that how it feels like for you? Justin (33m 26s): It sure is, man. It’s always, you know, a balance running this seasonal business through the summers, trying to get time off to do these amazing things with the wife and kids and, and I’m taking more time at this window as I think you probably know what I’m talking about. Oh yeah. These are the golden years when the kids are still I know cool with being around the parents and you know, we are in a very family driven community around here with the LDS population and much to their incredible credit, they create opportunities for families to do all sorts of super fun stuff. Dave (34m 5s): Yeah. Right. That’s it. Got it. So Justin (34m 7s): Cool. If, you let me know when you come out. I will, I got a list of cool things for you to do with the kids. Dave (34m 11s): I’m gonna definitely hit you up, including, yeah, I’ll Swing by the Swing by the place and check in. But, so this is good. I love this. So we got a primer on the river, you know, basically the area. So if we’re thinking, I mean all these look great. It sounds like the canyon, I mean they all have their own cool parts of the float. What would you, what would be the place and, and is there bank access? I mean, could people drive up and fish the river? Are people doing that? Justin (34m 34s): It’s, there are some spots and If, you want to know those spots. They kind of vary with the flow. I would recommend you call our fly shop. We have two of them, one in Swan Valley and one up here in Irwin. Oh wow. And there’s some other great outfitters that fish these area rivers, the Teton, the Henrys, whether it be Henry’s Fork anglers, WorldCast. There’s some call the fly shop. They have the up to the minute beta on where to access on that day and that time. And there is limited access in the summer. When you come here in the October, you’ll be like, Justin, there’s tons of places to wait and walk around here, but the flows will be considerably less. Justin (35m 16s): And you’ll be able to access that, that main channel. Dave (35m 19s): Right. That’s the difference. Yeah. Okay. That’s so later in the season. Yeah. When it gets down, certainly Justin (35m 23s): The upper section tends to offer more of those walk weight opportunities. Lessen that 24 mile Canyon section, which is broke up into two 12 miles Of course and more down low by he C for waiting hee hot springs in the town of hee. Gotcha. Dave (35m 38s): And is there a place where people could go and just rent a raft or a drift boat if they’re coming in there? Justin (35m 44s): Yep. Yep. You can Google that. There’s a couple different places that rent those rafts in drift boats. So, yep. I don’t know the number off the top of my head, but Dave (35m 52s): Yeah. Yeah, I, I think I saw one of ’em out there. I’ll, we’ll put a link to that, those in the show notes as well. So this is good. So we got a little bit of opportunity, the south first sink and I, I mean, I’m just gonna think of this as we’re coming in on more of a guided trip because I think that’ll be the best place. Cause there’s probably gonna be some overlap here on, you know, insects and things like that. But let’s take it there. Let, let’s start right now. So we got this stonefly hatch coming in and it seems like it’s coming in a little bit later once it happens. How long does that thing hang? Around? Justin (36m 16s): About two weeks. It’s about a two week deal. Last year we had this, they were eating big bugs into September. Oh wow. Something. Yeah. We have another hatch right after the salmon fly hatch, which is a large, like number four golden stone. And they really target those, those golden stones hatch in the wee hours of the morning. Really nice to throw a big dry fight early in the morning. Our pmdm hatch picks up our Sally, which we used to call ’em Sally’s, but now they’re more, it’s a golden stone. Sally had a red butt on it. These aren’t having red butts right now. Another interesting thing that I don’t understand about the life of everything, right? Justin (37m 3s): So, so as the summer progresses here, this is gonna be the hot action for the next three to four weeks. And then we enter hopper season, oh and Hoppers and our grasshoppers, another wonderful big dry fly, the Dave’s hopper, there’s a million different kinds and they seem to get a little more favorable to one with a longer leg or a bigger hackle or something again that we can’t quite understand. But hopper season’s coming in August. Wow. We end August, the end of August, we start seeing cooler nights in September, early September. We see snow periodically, it doesn’t stick, but it cools things off. Justin (37m 49s): We get a mutant stonefly hatch hatch, these, these stone flies that can’t fly And. we love to skidder those at sunrise, you know, across a flat or under a overhanging bush and twitch ’em out. Oh. and it’s an aggressive eat. Wow. And then we start kind of getting into our compare duns and our Duns as September progresses, our blueing to olives on cloudy days. you know, for your listeners, a pro tip from, from us, here you is If. you can somehow, and I know we don’t have control of our schedules, but overcast days, low pressure systems in July and August cost things to pop. Dave (38m 31s): Oh. I mean, okay, Justin (38m 32s): If, you can get out there on a little rainy day and you got some Gear you can wear. The fishing can oftentimes be exponentially better. We get locked into these high pressure systems and sunny for weeks. Right. and it makes it a little hard sometimes. That’s Dave (38m 47s): Cool. All right. So you got, yeah. You guys got it all going pretty much throughout the, all the summer. And then as you get into October, you start to lose some of the dries. Right? But what are the ones in early October you might still have a chance at? Justin (38m 58s): Yeah. Sulfur, dunns, bluing olives. We still twitch hoppers out there. you know, I didn’t get into really talking about streamer and the streamer game, which is super effective. you know, from an outfitting perspective. We don’t often go the streamer route with, with dudes unless somebody wa rolls in and says, you know, this is my game. This is what I do. Right. Then here we hand ’em a piece of meat and tie on to their O X and have ’em yank on it. And that’s very effective. Yeah, Dave (39m 31s): That’s right. That’s the, the, the Kelly Gup or whoever. Right. There’s lots of people, lots of big names with the streamer. And, and the reason that is, is that mainly it’s just like any of this stuff, streamers, you’re probably not gonna hook up into as many fish as you would a dry or nipping. Totally. Justin (39m 44s): And it’s tricky to teach somebody who’s fishing for one or two days. You just want to get ’em, you know, thrown a mphfr and not catch them, catch themselves or, and get that going. But certainly if people want to try, it’s a very effective, interesting to me, Dave young people are really into the streamer game. I think it’s fabulous. That Dave (40m 6s): Is right. Yeah. Yeah. Justin (40m 7s): And they eat ’em, you know, October again is brown truck go into the spawn and sometimes we, we target their aggression with streamers and that’s super effective. Collared up browns. Browns in low water. It’s fun. Dave (40m 23s): Today’s episode is sponsored by Eastern Idaho’s Yellowstone Teton territory. Idaho’s most renowned zone for fly fishing From. the Henry s Fork to the South Fork of the snake, and all the high alpine Lakes and streams in between. Yellowstone Teton territory provides anglers and other Outdoor enthusiasts with all the information they need to plan their next big trip. You can visit Wet fly Swing dot com slash Teton right now to get the full list of outfitters lodges, fly shops, and all kinds of inspiration to get you started on your next trip to Eastern Idaho. That’s Teton, T E T O N wef fly Swing dot com slash Teton. Dave (41m 3s): Let’s just take it again, back on the water. So if we were out there, the sand flies are going and you’re floating down the boat, take us there. What does that look like? We put in on these floats. Take us to a day in the, you know, a day or a half a day of floating. What does that feel like out there? Justin (41m 18s): Sure. Yeah. So typically till noon can be slow, slower. Once the heat, the sun comes up, the bugs, the rock walls, the grass dries off from the dew. That’s when we see our adults starting to take flight. And you know, the cycle, they, they, they look for a boy looks for a girl, and a girl looks for a boy and they do their thing in mid-air together. Lasts a few seconds, probably just like me, right? Dave (41m 49s): Right. Justin (41m 49s): Exactly. I didn’t say that right. But the trick to this, the salmon fly thing is throwing a large dry fly on two x underneath a bush or a tree and twitching it out and try to mimic the real life cycle of that adult salmon fly that walked out of the bottom of the river, crawled up the bank onto a tree or onto a piece of grass and they dry their wings off and fall into the river. And then they flutter and try to recover as they’re going down the river. Justin (42m 31s): And to mimic that with a fly tight tucks, we tell people it needs to be two inches off the bank, not five, not one, two inches, and then twitch it out towards us and it drives them nuts. And for so many of us dry fly fishermen, that target practice of getting it underneath there, side casting in the airmen’s If, you can get that. And it’s so rewarding Wow. To see that, that take, and they’re in fast water too, along rock walls. And you’ll want to get it right at that l of the water meeting, the rock wall. Justin (43m 11s): Oh wow. And drift right there. And you know what we tell people, you’re gonna lose some flies. Yep. This is, this is, you gotta get in there, you gotta twitch it too. Right. And you gotta manage your line and not have a ton of slack out there for the hook set. Dave (43m 24s): How do you do that when you’re, so basically you got this wall, let’s say you come down, you got this wall, you, and you get it as close as you can to the wall. I mean, you might even maybe touch the wall and bang it off and it drops right in front sort of thing. Is that Exactly. And then when you twitch it, describe the twitch, because I can imagine somebody twitching, they might be pulling it away from the wall. How do you do that? Right, Justin (43m 42s): Exactly. Right. It’s, it’s a process. The twitch can happen on amend or it can happen tight lined, but it has to be two inches. It moves and then it rests two inches and rests Gotcha. Or three inches maybe. Right. Dave (43m 57s): To give ’em a chance to eat it. Justin (43m 59s): Yep, yep. They wanna see it. They wanna see it and think about it for two seconds. And lazily come up and take of, it’s not that super fast water. And that’s, yeah, you just throw amend in there and then either wiggle the tip of your rod. That’s a great way to twitch as well. Just wiggle the top with a slow strip so you can bring in some of that slack. And then when the explosion happens, you know, it’s a, it’s a lift and smile. Right. Dave (44m 27s): Lift and smile. And then what is the, talk about that with the sify. So this is gonna be happening soon and over the next, actually probably by the time this episode goes live, the sandfly hatch might be over, but this will be out there for a while. So hopefully people will see this next year as well. But, so when you get the, you get the, the take. Talk about a little bit on the first, the fly. What, what fly would you recommend for, what do you guys like for that big sandfly? Oh Justin (44m 50s): Man, right now the guys are taken out of our fly bins. Water walkers a, a fly, kind of like a circus penis. We call it a well, there’s versions of the chubby, chubby Chernobyl with a wing case sometimes we trim that wing back a lot of times. Pro tip number two for you, my friend and your listeners. Yeah, let’s hear it. We carry sharpies. Oh Dave (45m 14s): Yeah, the Sharpie, Justin (45m 15s): Right. With Sharpie, the bottom, we’ll sharpie, the, the nylon wing cases with a little brown to, to start the light a little bit. That helps tease them. We’re throwing, oh, what was that one I had yesterday? I know the name escapes me. But it’s a waterwalk, it’s a, you know, it’s a version of Chernobyl Ant. Okay. Oh, red bottoms, black bottoms, purple bottoms, copper kind of sparkly bottoms are working legs twitch it. And Dave (45m 43s): I’d imagine as you get into it, you got the Es and then you Swing into August and more terrestrials. I, I’d imagine some of those salmon kind of match the grasshopper too, right? They could certainly Justin (45m 52s): Fly. Yeah, certainly. Certainly. Yep. There’s a little shorter body on the grasshopper. That golden stone is a good kind of in between the salmon fly and the hopper as well. Same thing with the golden stone cast in there. Tight twitch it, twitch it, those flies. Those larger golden stones, the salmon flies. So if we have a foam body one, they’re great for hanging our nims off of as the day progresses. And maybe the surface action slows down a little bit in the evening. We’ll put some PMDs beheads on there. This, you know, the game changer for us these last couple, maybe two years has been the paragons. Oh Dave (46m 31s): Really? Peragon. So you’re mixing a little, little euro. Justin (46m 34s): Yeah. But we won’t, you know, we won’t long line like a Euro NPH thing. We just hang ’em off of four x from the bend of the hook. Dave (46m 42s): Oh, from the bend. Yeah. Just fishing you right off from a salmon fly or hopper. Justin (46m 46s): Yep. Super effective. That fly has changed things, I’ll tell you right now. It really super effective for us out here. Dave (46m 55s): That’s cool. Yeah. The, the paragon that’s, yeah. That’s awesome. So I wanted to chat on that a little bit too. So we got, and then, then you get into the like August and then September you’ve got, you mentioned some of the bugs coming off. Remind us again on that. What were some, what were some of the flies? If, you had a box you wanted to put together for like your, you know, kind of some August, September, October, dry fly box. What would be some of those? Justin (47m 17s): Sure. August would definitely have a assortment of hoppers would have an assortment of ants. Not a Chernobyl ant, but you know, the little two bubble, two ants in black root beer, little wing casing on ’em works. We also have, I forgot about this, a great cadi hash brown cadi. Right? It’s throw those, an elk care works fine. Cadis pupa in the mornings on riffles. Super effective. Then as August kind of moves on, we use smaller hoppers. Then we start getting into our sulfur duns, our compare Duns in olive, brown, green, green, zebra, midges work. Justin (48m 6s): Great as we kind of get into the colder temperatures of fall and red zebra midges with a bead head on them. Super effective hanging those. And then are bluing olives are very popular as well. We kind, we always have PMDs, we always have, you know, always, I mean into, once it starts freezing at night, then they kinda wane for sure. And, we get more to our sulfur duns and our blueing olives. Dave (48m 39s): Okay. And then Cadis or Cadis going strong, when do they stop? Justin (48m 43s): Cadi probably start winding up mid-October. you know, we get cadis, you know, there’s a morning hatch and I don’t know the, the species off the top of my head. There’s an evening hatch, you know, pro chip also for this river is, for those of you that might visit and be do-it-yourselfers, put on later this river empties at five o’clock. Oh wow. When, when the, when the, a lot of these folks, whether they’re private or outfitters, you know, try to fit another event in, right. Whether they go to restaurant, visit somebody, yada, yada, yada. But you can have that river even today, peak season to yourself at five o’clock. Justin (49m 24s): And it’s, it doesn’t get dark till 10. Oh yeah. That’s a, that’s a secret that when I hear people kind of frustrated at the traffic, which happens for a minute, just go later in the day. It’s a whole nother experience. Wow. Yeah. And great fishing. Dave (49m 42s): Yeah. That’s all. That’s a great, that’s definitely one of the Great tips of the, of the year for sure. That’s a good one. So Justin (49m 47s): Remember that one. Yeah. Dave (49m 48s): Good. All right. So we got, we’re doing good. We got some pro tips, we got the hatches going and, and it sounds like, yeah, you guys kind of have everything. If we were coming there early October, you know, right around the corner it’s basically PMDs, bws, cadis, I mean you got all, all sorts of stuff still going. Just not as thick as, as it might be in, you know. Correct. Yeah. And then gets Justin (50m 6s): To be more what you’ll see when you’re hearing these lower flows. And as far as dry fishing, you get more selective. You float down the river slowly and see heads popping 200 yards down there. Which is, I mean, I’m just thinking about this. I’m coming with words coming outta my mouth and there’s nothing knowing, you know this, there they are, they’re eating, let’s feed one and setting up your cast and getting the angle of the boat just right. Oh right. Thinking about the wind and the sun angle. And then you put it all together and the line goes tight. So you’re gonna have last when you’re out here. Dave (50m 42s): That’s sweet. Yeah. That’s the cool thing. I think it’s, we’ve got kind of gonna be, the dryly is gonna be actually kind of the bonus because we’re, you know, focusing on this euro nipping, you know, school sort of thing, you know. But really I think there will be some opportunities to do some other stuff. Justin (50m 56s): The same, same thing with neuro nipping. You’ll be able to target your water, see the flow, really structure your cast and your presentation to be really effective. Dave (51m 5s): Okay. And what do you guys, what’s that look like for you? So you mentioned the streamers. What does that look like for Nipping when you guys do, are you still doing, is that like 80% of your time is nipping or is it like 50 50 dry is nips and you got the dry dropper too, so that’s kind of a mix too. For sure. Justin (51m 20s): You know, this depends on the angler. you know, If, you got a brand new 12 year old kid out there. You’re throwing a hopper and dangling off two nymphs beneath that If. you have a technical person that’s more experienced and can cast two small dry flies or one small blue and all olive or sulfur paradon or something like that. And see it too, by the way. you know, we’ll cater to that person’s abilities and their expectations. you know, some people are like, I don’t care how many fish I catch, I just want a big one. Or I don’t care about a big one. I just wanna, I just wanna bend the rod all day. Justin (52m 2s): So we kind of do different gotcha techniques to, to accomplish those. Dave (52m 5s): That’s really cool. That’s Justin (52m 6s): Awesome. And streamer, fishing’s good too. Dave (52m 8s): Yeah. So that’s what I mean the south for the snake, I mean, for you, you know, and I’ve asked this before some of our other guests, but what is it, you know, that makes it special to you? Like this area? It seems like you got everything from the fishing perspective. What, what keeps you coming back on, on that area Justin (52m 22s): Knowing that they’re there always and they’re willing to eat. I just have to crack the code. I have, you know, Dave, I got memories from my childhood. I, I never thought I’d be one of these guys that, well yeah. Back in the day. But I’ll be 55 this summer. Oh wow. And I can’t believe it. Amazing. And I didn’t, I started fishing that river, this river when I was about 19 years old. And I, I just have all these memories of, this is where that one time when we caught the big one, this is where we missed the big one on the next, this is the waterfalls that we all jumped and swim. There’s so many fabulous memories and I’m still making them there. Justin (53m 4s): The eagles, the ruralness, the wildness of the river. There really isn’t a lot of development on this river. You get solitude and peace. And the zen that I talk about with our guests of being in the moment when you’re out on that river or any river as you know, If, you can turn your phone off. You can’t do anything about yesterday. You can’t do anything about tomorrow. All you can do is be right there in that moment. And friend, I’m addicted to it and I’m lucky enough to make a living, trying to get people in that place and space. Dave (53m 46s): That is cool. Yeah. The, the canyon always brings it back to me whenever I hear River Canyon I think. Yep. Okay. Time to, there’s not gonna be any cell. So the River Canyon section, section two. And where is the put in? Is there, what’s the main put in for that one? The Justin (53m 60s): Big one is Conant. Conant has a large developed parking area, porta potties. It’s got a raft launch as well as a drift boat and a Jetboat launch too. you know, we allow jet boats on this river. Yeah. And they’re part of the deal. Idaho is a strong lobby with motorized boat usage. Sure. And they’re out there as well. And so Conan’s, the one you put in, there’s a access in the middle of the canyon, 12 miles down called Fullmer, or we call it Cottonwood, has two names and that’s a long dirt road drive to access. But we use it every single day as others do as well. Justin (54m 41s): And then you take out at Bingington, that’s another Bingington Dave (54m 45s): Bi. Justin (54m 46s): Yep. Bingington Dave (54m 47s): Bingington. Okay, cool. And then fully developed. And then when you’re in that section, is that a, most people are, are they camping in there or are they floating through? Are they doing Justin (54m 55s): Half and half? There are tons of public access designated campsites. There are, there’s an outfitter bank down there. We call it where all of us, seven Outfitters that hold the eight permits for this river. We have overnight camp set up. The lodge policy doesn’t, we don’t have an overnight camp set up because we have one on the river in, in Irwin. It just has log cabins, flushing, toilets, a killer restaurant, 22 acres, a pond. Wow. So we’ve talked about putting a overnight camp up and we’ve asked our guests about us and they look at me and say, why would we wanna stay in a tent and poop in a bucket? Justin (55m 38s): Yeah. When we’re right here. Dave (55m 40s): Right. That’s it. Justin (55m 41s): I understand. Dave (55m 42s): Yeah. Gotcha. So, so pretty much, yeah, you got it all. You can do the overnight camping. And this is kinda a question, you know, I recently, I was on a river trip and you know, I won’t mention the, the name or the outfitter stuff, but I mean like river etiquette, you know, I mean I, we definitely had an experience that really made one of our days a little rough and it was basically some pressure, you know, it was like we were camped at a spa And. we, we thought we were good. And then throughout the day, multiple people came in. Like were walking through the camp, hanging out in our camp, kind of trying to hold the camp for the next day. you know, we were getting, we didn’t even know if we were sticking around, but it was just this thing, like it was this really aggressive and they were outfitters. Justin (56m 20s): Oh, sorry to hear that. Dave (56m 21s): You know what I mean? They were outfitters and it was just like this whole thing and, and I had my family there and you know. So what’s your take on that? Like etiquette? I mean, what is, where do you even start when somebody, I mean, I mean, how do you guys do it? Like that’s the thing. When it’s pre, I guess when there’s a lot of people on the river, Justin (56m 38s): We have that situation for just a tiny window and it’s over July 4th weekend. Other than that, there, like I said, there are designated campsites with signs right on the river. Easy to access maps are available, you are asked to use these sites. Most of the canyon section where camping happens is on BLM or national forest land. I’ve heard of these challenges that you mentioned during this particular weekend. Fortunately, there are islands that do not have designated campsites on that you’re welcome to use. Justin (57m 19s): There are more spots generally as you go down. I think for the most part, the people that take the time and energy to get to this river to overnight camp have a sense of etiquette. It’s unfortunate to see the load of garbage the BLM periodically brings out as they clean these campsites out. It’s really mind boggling to me how people do this. But it’s becoming less and less common. And there is talk, and I do believe here soon there will be a small fee and reservation system on the internet for BLM forest service to manage these campers etiquette. Justin (58m 2s): It’s what makes the experience for everybody respect space. We have a, as I mentioned earlier, designated spot, the outfitters use. It’s a way from, I think it’s pretty clear to any non outfitting person, a private person, that these campsites are particular use for a particular group of people. And there’s wonderful campsites all up and down the river on both sides. And If, you don’t find the one you want, you will find one and in a 9 1 1, oh my gosh, it’s getting dark And. Justin (58m 42s): we don’t have a spot. Right. There’s islands, there’s some, there’s plenty of flat access, plenty of public flat access. And I think If, you’re cool and you pick up your stuff if for somehow you do end up on private land accidentally, that landowner, you know, would appreciate just, just the leaving no trace and wouldn’t hassle you off the, you know, and at this we don’t, I know there’s problems I’m sure with, you know, drinking and people being stupid, but it really doesn’t make up, this is not the underlying issue. It’s, it happens here and there, but not that big of a deal. There’s plenty of room. Yeah. Dave (59m 21s): Yeah. And I agree. I think part of our, our struggle was, is that we were actually on 4th of July. We could too, which it was our first time doing this section on 4th of July. Typically we don’t And, we just did it because it worked out and, and I think we were in an area of the river that was kind of one of those busy areas. So, but, but no, I think it’s, that’s a good take. I like how you said it. I mean, basically there’s plenty of camps. If, you don’t find If. you, you know, if the one you want is taken, I mean there’s gonna be another one. Justin (59m 45s): There’s gonna be another one. And if it gets late at night, and there’s one group of say, four or six people, I’m certain If you walked up with a smile and a cold beer and said, can we go down behind those trees past you? And, and it, it, there’s, there’s an understanding that’s as long as you don’t start lighting fireworks, shooting guns, totally pounding booze and being a fool. Dave (1h 0m 8s): Exactly. Yeah. That was the awesome, well thanks for taking us down. And it’s just interesting cuz you know, and I think there’s different levels of, of this around the country. We’ve talked about some of this from say like the Salmon River in New York, you know, where their shoulder is, shoulder fishing for Steelhead or whatever, salmon, and that everybody has the busy times of the year. But it’s cool. I love that pro tip you gave us earlier that, you know what I mean, get started later in the day and you’re probably gonna miss some crowds. Justin (1h 0m 30s): Guaranteed it works every time. Good. All right. You’ll, you’ll avoid about, perfect. Dave (1h 0m 34s): Well, so we talked a little bit about the river. Let’s you know, the lodge itself. So your lodge, I think, has it won two of the Orvis awards? Talk about that. Yeah. Like what, what, how did you guys, you know, how’d you get there where you’re winning awards? And then also talk about what if somebody wants to come with you and connect and maybe get a day or a, or whatever a week on the river with you. How would they do that? Justin (1h 0m 53s): Yeah, sure. So when I came on board, we had already won one in 2007 Orvis Do Fly Fishing Lodge of the Year. My goal was to win another one. It took four years to do that. We did that primarily by working with Orvis, like we talked earlier and learning what other lodges do that’s successful. Maybe one example would be Dave. We used to, when I came on board every morning, the guides would pick out 30 flies, And, we put it at, on the guest bill. Well, you know, you do that for two or three days and you got a bill for 120 flies, and the guest checks out and says, I don’t even, where are my flies? Justin (1h 1m 38s): I don’t. So we nixed that and that was a great suggestion. Orvis did, let’s not nickel and dime the people include the cost in this stay. And every day our guides get to pick out 12 flies a day. And they accumulate those over the, over the years and seasons. And, and that works to provide them what they need. And the other thing with Orvis is they have a review system. And the more we got our guests to submit reviews and positive reviews, that really gets their attention. The other way to win that award with Orvis, if any of my Orvis endorsed peers are out there is play nice with Orbis, promote their products, call and communicate with them. Justin (1h 2m 25s): Special order things for your guests. Yeah. Use them as a resource. They’re there. I mean, and the cool thing about Orbis is, is, you know, I can call and talk to Perk Perkins or Dave Perkins. Right. Or Simon. Yeah. Who’ve I’ve been. They’re, they’re very approachable. They’re super supportive. They really want, you know, it’s a win-win for both of us when people have positive experience. So yeah, it is, that’s how we, we won the, the award in 2014. And, we’re going for it again right now. We really want to try to. Oh, nice. It’s been almost 10 years. We’d like to get that. We’d like to get that award, that acknowledgement. and it does. It’s a nice breath of wind into our sails for sure. Dave (1h 3m 8s): That’s perfect. Awesome. So, so yeah. So if people want to come in and I guess like you said, the, the t l pc.com, they can just check in there and or send you an email directly? Justin (1h 3m 18s): Absolutely. They can call us Of course. We always like visiting with people so we can kind of get their idea and expectations into check and And. We’re always around. I’ve got a great young man Shade who’s been, he’s 30 years old. He’s been with us since 15, worked every position. He’s out there rowing the boat right now. He’s our reservation guy. He’s our fly shop purchaser. He’s very knowledgeable in what’s happening every single day as we put those 12 boats out and the guides are in there, chitter chatter and about what worked where and when. So we have up to the minute knowledge. Justin (1h 3m 58s): Our website’s a great place to get an idea of what the lodge is like. We accommodate 26 people. We’re all inclusive, you know, we pride ourselves in being a second home to people. I’ve got amazing staff, great. Two great chefs that make delicious food, breakfast and dinner. Unique small cabins. We have 13 cabins and different configurations for groups. One right on the river with a deck over the river. Oh wow. Our A-frame. Very, very popular magical place to spend the evening having a cocktail before or after dinner. Wow. Fun party room. Justin (1h 4m 39s): So we’re available, we’ve, we’ve got our website Of course, our email as a, you may have mentioned earlier, my personal email. I’m always available to answer questions. And then palisades tpc.com get you into our reservation and special request department and answering questions kind of thing. That’s Dave (1h 5m 3s): Awesome. And, and like you said, you on the website Yeah. You have some resources, updates, you have a daily kind of what’s going on. Fishing report, is that kind of a weekly or monthly report Justin (1h 5m 12s): Every Thursday? My good friend Chris Jensen, who’s a father, like you and I of two beautiful kids, been a guide for us for many years now, has an SEO o company, but he’s out here fishing. His family’s got a cabin on the river here. So he produces our fishing reports every Thursday. You can sign up for that on our website. We’ve got a newsletter sign up as well. We don’t hammer people with that too much information. We just certainly don’t sell that list to anybody. But it’s a great way to know what’s going on around here and when it’s going on and what to expect. Dave (1h 5m 49s): That’s it. That’s awesome. Yeah, there have some killer resources. That’s a good, you know, whether people are gonna be calling you or swinging by on their own there. Sounds like there’s a ton of resources and, and, and yeah, this has been good. Anything else? What, what, you know, I I got a little random bonus segment. We’re gonna take us away here, but anything else on the fishing, anything else you wanna throw out there that we missed or any other highlights throughout the year? Justin (1h 6m 10s): No, Dave. I, I feel like we kind of covered a lot of information fairly quickly. We want everybody to call us, whether you’re staying with us or not, we want to promote fly fishing. It makes the world a better place. We’ve got an incredible resource here. It’s not overused. It’s something to share with everybody. You’ll be a better person when you come out. Fly fishing on the south Fork of the snake. Let us help you. There Dave (1h 6m 36s): You go. Perfect. And, and I’ll, I’ll mention that. I think you guys had, was it the New Fly Fisher was out there? Did they do a, a kind of YouTube? Justin (1h 6m 45s): Yep. Mark Melnick did a couple episodes out here. I got another young man here right now from Cut Bow Media. He’s making a YouTube video for us. So yeah, check out our YouTube channel. I’ve really learned that this is becoming a more and more common resource even for older guys and girls. It is. Dave (1h 7m 5s): Yeah. I think you, YouTube’s huge. This is it. So, all right, well let’s take it away here with a little bit of a random segment. And these are pretty easy ones. You’ve given us some pro tips already, but let’s take it back. I, I’m always interested in the boats. So what, what’s your boat, you know, drift boat, I’m assuming it’s all, is it all drift boats that you guys run? Justin (1h 7m 21s): Yeah, yeah. We run, we run our outfit here kind of favors lac of crafts. They just have that warranty on the bottom. That boat flexes. Well we’ve got the configuration now where we can put the cooler under the front seat so it balances that boat we use, we like to use our wooden Sawyer ORs, their light and they float 16 footers. Right. I just got a brand new one with two seats up front for my kids and a seat in the back. My wife, we’ve got a distribution center in Idaho Falls with every tool part piece screw they Dave (1h 7m 57s): Fixed. Oh, you do? That’s right. Huge. Yeah. You have Idaho Idaho Falls. Yeah. I can’t remember the name of the person, but yeah, there is a guy that’s running the Idaho Falls for CL out there, right? Justin (1h 8m 5s): Yep. John Stenerson, the Hy Family makes Drift boats in Idaho Falls too. They’re fabulous boats well made, well sturdy row. Like, I mean those hides are slick on the water. Yeah. They, they stay in one place pretty easy. Totally. Dave (1h 8m 24s): Yeah. I think it’s, it seems like it’s almost the rod, you know, the thing you hear so much about, like there isn’t a bad rod, you know, with all these different rods. They’re all true. Pretty much. Good And drift boats seem to be the same way. I mean I know I had an old drift boat back I think it was like an eighties boat, you know, but I used to run it and it was just not good. The design wasn’t as good as the current. So I think they all tweaked their designs, but it feels like now they’re all pretty much pretty amazing designs. Justin (1h 8m 46s): They are. They got dimples on the bottom. They channel the water from the back to the rower seat underneath. It’s, it’s interesting the hydrodynamics that, that they’ve come up with, but they’ve made ’em very sturdy. We like low profile boats here to address the wind on an everyday guiding basis. Oh right. Yeah. High, high siders I got a couple of these guides that they’re truly amazing. They prefer a high side boat because they fish. I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t probably, they’ll flick me in the head for saying this, but a couple stud guides that fish these hydraulics and boils, most of us avoid. Oh these guys are deep nymphs. They tie their own very proprietary special nymphs and man, they get ’em. Justin (1h 9m 31s): That’s where this big huge cutty I mentioned to yesterday came out of the river with one of my gotcha. High, high side boil guides. Oh Dave (1h 9m 39s): Wow. So that’s the thing. So you got the low side, which is great for wind or even the, what are the other, the pram? Not prams, but you know, the low skiffs Justin (1h 9m 46s): Skiffs. There’s a, there’s a skiff out there, a new skiff company up in Idaho Falls. Brandon Murphy are a good buddy from West Bank. Anglers over in Jackson started, took the, he didn’t start it, he Carter’s Andrews kind of first put this boat on the water and got it famous and now Brandon’s doing it now outta Alpine. Low simple light, you know, bathtub sit only boats, they work. Yep. They’re great for outfitting in, in this area. Dave (1h 10m 15s): Yeah, they work that’s, and part of it is, I think that’s the big thing is do you have a lot of white water that you’re going through then you probably want to go with something with, well it doesn’t necessarily have to be higher sides, but like you’re saying, the guys that are in that, that boils and whitewater, you definitely don’t want a low sided boat. Justin (1h 10m 29s): Yep, yep. We don’t, you know, many of us stay away from anything that could be challenging. But there’s a few guys because they know we stay away from those points from a safety perspective. They’ll go in there with their high sides and dangle and drop some nymphs in there and they just get ’em. It takes a lot of talent and confidence and experience. And Josh JLo and Buck Leonard, a couple of these guys that we have that have the experience and the knowledge to get ’em in there. Dave (1h 10m 60s): Gotcha. Okay. Perfect. Do you like a, as far as Rods and the line set up, do, do you like a, are you more like what, 4, 5, 6 weight? What, what’s your, what’s your weight? Justin (1h 11m 8s): Yep. I like five, six weights for this area. you know, the thing I’ve really got into is these 10 foots, you know, it comes from mending with a, a nymph rig or a dry dropper rig. They get ’em in there, they lift that line a little easier. They cast higher in the drift boat to help alleviate dudes from the nerve isness of hooking somebody. But yeah, primarily five and six weights, six weights, If. you had one rod, it’d be a six weight. Dave (1h 11m 36s): Six weight. And you’re saying six six weight, 10 foot rod. Justin (1h 11m 40s): I’d probably say a nine. If. you If, you had to stick with one rod here I’d go with a nine foot six weight. You can throw a streamer, you can throw your double dry, your nymph rigs. You can, you know, throw some worms and some eggs. If, you need to, it’s just, and a wind big dry fly. It’s Yeah. And the wind perfect. Exactly right. Dave (1h 11m 60s): Yeah. You guys get a little bit of wind out there Justin (1h 12m 2s): For sure. It’s, it’s the deal. Yeah. With, especially with the reservoir and the cool water above us every morning. It’s windy here. I’d love a floor weight for right now in the afternoon. I know. Yeah. Four weight deep bend there and the casting and, and it’s a big river. you know, you’re gonna, you’re gonna want to be proficient to 40 feet If. you can 30, 30 feet, which is longer than most people think. you know, it’s, Dave (1h 12m 26s): Yeah, it is. Justin (1h 12m 27s): We don’t do any 50 60, none of that saltwater distance stuff. You just, with the current, you just don’t get a drift. Dave (1h 12m 33s): Oh, right. You gotcha. Okay. And then, and you mentioned the, the dry drop. What’s your typical just leader setup? Is that pretty standard? Like how, how long is that typically? Justin (1h 12m 41s): Yeah, we do probably If, you’re a nine foot rod, probably a six or seven foot, two x liter to a big dryly and then four x hanging off the bend of the hook to the, to the nymphs. That’s Dave (1h 12m 54s): It. Yep. And then you got your nymphs going down. Perfect. Yep. What is, so I’m just talking just generally on the area. I know you guys sounds like you have some good food. What would be, if somebody’s coming up to that area, some part of, you know, Eastern Idaho, is there a food, something you’d recommend if on after a long day they Swing by and catch some, some good food, that sort of thing? Justin (1h 13m 16s): Yeah, you bet. I mean that’s a, that’s another segment. I’m a foodie, so Good. I’m, I’m into that kind of thing. But you know, we’ve got here in Swan Valley, we’ve got one particular restaurant, the Snake River Roadhouse. Nice. They do nice a great job. Pizzas kind of a standard bar. Fair quality, quick. You can eat inside, you can eat outside. Hee Hot Springs has the Hot Springs golf course. Oh wow. Down in the Lower Canyon. They do great pizzas and sandwiches there. Simple food. Perfect. You jump over into Victor about 30 miles from here and there’s all sorts of killer sushi, barbecue joints, Thai food. We’re a bedroom community to Jackson Hole 18 miles away. Justin (1h 13m 59s): Right Dave (1h 13m 60s): In Justin (1h 14m 0s): The v actually in the valley right here where the lodge is. There’s not a lot of options. Of course we’re available. Dave (1h 14m 5s): Oh. So you can stop in so somebody can just stop in for dinner. Justin (1h 14m 8s): Well, I wouldn’t say stop in because we have a set menu, a set number of guests. We like to get a day or two heads notice. But to call us up, we’ve got a great menu, great dining room deck, sit outside. We can be available certainly pre and postseason more often than peak season when most of our chairs are full. Love to have you. Okay, perfect. Alpine, Wyoming on the other side of Palisades Reservoir has some cool restaurants to the Bull Moose. Okay, Dave (1h 14m 36s): Nice. Justin (1h 14m 37s): The Norwegian place. So yeah, we’ll stick my memory. Really cute place. Dave (1h 14m 41s): And you said foodie, what does that mean you’re a food? Do that mean, do you just, you love food or you, you’re, I guess so you have chefs that work for you too, so that’s Justin (1h 14m 48s): We do. Yep. I have been a chef many years. Oh yeah. Right, right, right. As I mentioned earlier, worked with, you know, that’s where I met Dick Cheney. Oh, really? Over in Jackson Hole. Oh wow. Dave (1h 14m 58s): Yeah. Awesome. Justin (1h 15m 0s): He’s been here plenty. No. Oh that’s Dave (1h 15m 2s): Right. He was, he was a Yeah, he’s a fly angler, right? Is that, was that Justin (1h 15m 5s): Oh, passionate. Oh, Dick’s. Dave (1h 15m 7s): That’s right. Dick’s Justin (1h 15m 8s): A big, yeah, he’s super into it. Poor guy’s not doing so good. We haven’t seen him for a while, but you know, I could tell you stories of when he was in office and we’d take him down the river and the, then the debauchery of Secret Service helicopters and boats and Oh Dave (1h 15m 23s): Wow. So you dealt with that. You so dick, so dick’s there. What, what is that? Because we did one, I can’t remember who it was, but it was the, the company that took Obama out. Right. On the sort, they remember them saying like they had to just the planning for it. Right. I mean, you had to like lock in. I can’t remember how, I think what happened is is Obama didn’t even do the trip because it became such a lockdown on the river. Justin (1h 15m 43s): Oh, Obama. Yeah. Dick was very firm to have the least amount of impact on the public as possible. They would stop up the boat ramp for while he got his waders on and his buddies got in the boat. But we all made sure that it was as little impact on the public as possible. There was, I was in a secret service boat most of those days. No kidding. And. we were a hundred yards behind him. A hundred yards above him. There was a photographer drift boat. There were sheriff jet boats around the corner outta sight that, that had attorneys, and nurses and damn ammunition. Right. Oh man. Dave (1h 16m 20s): So did they, did you know, I mean, who was the one with your outfit leading up the, like the, the main person in charge? Was that you or was it somebody else? Justin (1h 16m 27s): Back in those days, that was my guiding days. So Mike Bean was his guide, still is his guide. Saw Mike out in the river couple days ago, and he would coordinate what sections that all had to be kept secret. We didn’t know where we go until the morning. We showed up and everybody got their boat sniffed by dog and went through and, you know, once you pass that thing, which happened every time, then you sit and wait and then you head down the river and, and, and try to give him his space and his place. There was a lot of crazy stuff was going on in those days. The Iraq war, Georgia, I remember got invaded, won the country one year, and he had to make a satellite phone call outta the canyon. Justin (1h 17m 15s): Wow. And they couldn’t get a connection. And the, I believe it was the Navy was moving satellites so that we could get a better line of sight from his Holy, holy cow. I mean it, and the stories go on. Wow. On it’s amazing. And the, the assets they would use the people on horseback following us down the river that we never saw. Dudes sitting on the bank in the middle of the canyon. There’d be some guy with a spin rod and four coolers and no boat, no nothing. Right. And you’d think, what is that? Oh, oh, that’s a guy. He’s got guns and bullets and radios and they all had code talk that they would talk about when a boat got too close or a car came on the road. Justin (1h 17m 59s): I almost saw some folks get shot one time. No kidding. Oh yeah. I’ll never forget it. I Dave (1h 18m 4s): Mean, you saw guns drawn, Justin (1h 18m 6s): They pulled the guns out. It was a red Chevy S 10 with tinted windows the whole, we were fishing this bank right next to the road at the end of the canyon. And somehow this car got by and the guy said, Justin, turn the boat. I need to get a clean shot. and he is pulling out this M four Wow. And racking it. And I’m thinking, I I almost pooped my pants. Holy, holy crap. It’s gonna go down. Dave (1h 18m 28s): This guy pulled out a Yeah, just the whatever Justin (1h 18m 31s): Pulled out Small machine gun. Yeah. The small one. And if I, I don’t know a ton about guns, but I’m sure it had a suppressor. They were chattering on radios and like some cool space phone all in code Red eagle blue, red eagle blue. Right. Sniper nine coming in, left side south come we need, damn, they were freaking out. I thought as soon as I hear him click that safety off, I was gonna jump out the side of the boat and just hang on with one hand. Right. Dave (1h 18m 58s): Yeah. You’re outta there. Justin (1h 18m 59s): But luckily one of their Humvees came up and pushed that person long and I’m certain it was just a nice family. Oh yeah. That no big deal. Saw five boats piled up on a bank. Yeah. And was wondering what was going on. But I remember this, the, I remember the, the one guy in the back of my boat said to the guy in the front, take out the window first. Oh my God. And I’ll take out the, the person or whatever the, the subject or whatever it was. My heart just shot through the roof. But oh my god, it all ended well. Dave (1h 19m 28s): Yeah. It all right. That’s the story. That’s the, that’s the crazy, you know, when I hear that story, that is an amazing story. you know, the, the thing I think about is like, wow, when I want to ever be at that level, like, you know what I mean? Like what, what would that be for you? Would you ever want to be at that? Like, you know, there’s lots of No. Yeah, Justin (1h 19m 44s): No, Dick didn’t like it either. you know, I was able to also go on some of his overnight trips and cook for he and his buddies. Oh wow. And you know, I, I have a very memory burned in my brain. Late at night everybody went to bed and the vice president was sitting in his chair staring at the fire. And right behind him was a very large secret service agent with his back to the vice president staring out into complete darkness for an hour. Looking for any threat. Right. And the amount of resources they had to keep the vice president safe and knowing what was going on, sending men to war at that point in time, it weighed heavily on him. Justin (1h 20m 28s): I think a lot of people thought maybe he was a made of steel. He is not. He is a family man, grandfather and I, I, I know a different side of Vice President Cheney than I think a lot of people do. He is a conservationist, he is a passionate fly fisherman. He loves this resource. He’s a Wyoming man, boy, a mountain guy. and he loves it. He loves fly fishing and, and he loves the resource’s. So cool. Yeah. That’s Dave (1h 20m 58s): So cool. Yeah, I think that that’s the thing that, you know, people don’t realize is like, man, all those people, you know, for the most part they’re, they’re taking one for their, you know, for the country. Right. I mean he, you know, it is true. They love the country. It’s like, you know, and I, I’m, I’ve just been wa kinda watching this documentary on Ben Franklin recently, you know, and it’s like, it’s, it’s the same similar thing, man. When you hear the guy’s life story, you realize like, oh my God, the guy didn’t make all the right choices. you know, he, and not like nobody does, but he kept trying to improve himself, you know, and I think that that’s, and for the country, again, like he did the things for, you know, this country cuz we all love it, you know, for the same stuff that we’re talking about today. Being able to have a free floating section with public lands Right. And be able to do that. Dave (1h 21m 38s): That’s I think, I’m sure Cheney, I’m just guessing that he’s all for that. Right. Justin (1h 21m 43s): Dave, I think you’re a spot on. Yes. Yep. Tough decisions to make tough when they influence so many others. But at the end of the day, I believe many of these people like Cheney, they’re not in it for themselves. They’re looking for the greater good of, of our citizens. And I respect the guy for that. And Ben Franklin too. Franklin. Right, Dave (1h 22m 7s): Exactly. Ben Franklin. It’s shout out to Ken Byrds. By the way, if people don’t know about the Ken Byrds documentary, that guy is got some good ones out there. So cool. Justin, well I think I’ll leave it there. We, I had a few more random, but I think I can’t surpass the M four and Dick Cheney so I’m just gonna, I’m gonna leave it at that if that sounds good to you. And we’ll maybe we’ll circle back around with you later this year after we get a chance to head your way. Justin (1h 22m 28s): Love it. Dave, please reach out to me when you get out here. I appreciate the opportunity being with you and talking to your listeners. Be well everybody. Be well Dave and family and I look forward to putting some eyeballs on you this fall. Dave (1h 22m 40s): Justin Hayes on Travel, part of the Wet Fly Swing podcast and Swing Outdoors. This podcast was supported by Eastern Idaho’s Yellowstone Teton territory. You can support this podcast and Eastern Idaho by heading over to Wetly Swing dot com slash Teton right now. That’s T e t o n. And and check in there with any of the brands businesses there and let them know you heard of us and them through this podcast. Don’t forget to check in with me. If you have any areas you’d like us to travel to in the future. You can send me an email anytime Dave at wef fly Swing dot com. If you’re new and you are just listening in and this is also a good way to check in If you have any other feedback as we move ahead. Dave (1h 23m 21s): That is Dave wef fly Swing dot com Would love to hear from you, especially if you’ve never checked in or it’s been a little while. Before we get outta here, let’s take a quick peek at at, we haven’t done this in a little while, the Yellowstone Teton website. Let’s do that really quick. I want to plug it in right now. Into what? Fly Swing dot com slash Teton. Let’s see what’s, see what we got here. Anything new has changed. Well let’s do with something really quick. This is really cool because we got, I know the lodge of Palisades Creek, so we’re just looking around where can you chill out this summer? That’s the first question. That is a good question. I’m just looking at upcoming events and there are some good events coming up here. Dave (1h 24m 7s): Let’s see here. I’m gonna go into accommodations. I don’t think we looked at accommodations. Let’s do this. Accommodations where wilderness meets happiness in Idaho. So it’s broken down by all we got. We got Idaho Falls, we got Island Park, everything’s broken up. We talked about this before by different areas. Let’s just start in Idaho Falls. Let’s take a look at anything new that we haven’t seen here in a little while. We got the Calamity Campground, we got, we got some lodges, some hotels on here. We got the Hilton Garden Inn and we got some RV parks. Let’s take a look. I’m not sure, I’m not sure if we’ve looked at Idaho Falls Luxury RV Park. Dave (1h 24m 48s): Let’s take a look. Quick look. This is probably, if you’re traveling through obviously through Idaho Falls, you need a place to stop. I’m gonna take a look. Offers the largest pay full hookups of in the region. High speed wifi. Located Jason to the Snake River and convenient access to I or I 15 and Highway 20 secure gated. So this looks like a pretty If. you need something right off the road. This is probably the place, I’m gonna click on their website here. Idaho Falls Luxury RV Park. Yep. And they got everything. Access. There’s the river, they got their different, yeah, it’s just basically a nice big RV park. There’s some reviews here. Dave (1h 25m 29s): Okay, good. So there’s one. So If, you got a big rv, you’re looking for a place to stop into out there. That’s one. Let’s take a quick peek. What else do we have here? Buffalo Campground. Let’s take a look at Box Canyon Campground. We haven’t, I know we haven’t looked at that. This looks really cool. Okay, so this is the Box Canyon Campground is situated on the Canyon rim above Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. There you go. On the Canyon Rim right above the Henry’s Fork. That’s pretty cool. There are 16 single and two double units each having 10 in camper pads, fire rings, grills a picnic, campsites near the rim. Shaded Lodge, PO Pine Douglass for. Okay, so this is really cool. Dave (1h 26m 9s): I’m gonna zoom in. Is there a website? There isn’t a website? Oh yeah, there is a website right here. I’m gonna go to it. And it’s the Forest Service. So Box Canyon. So U S D A Forest Service. They’ve got some stuff at a Glance single site. There you go. So I’m on a box Canyon campground right above the Henry’s Fork. Definitely a good place. Let’s see, is it first come, first serve? I’m not sure on that. Ashton Idaho is 27 miles south of Box Canyon Campground. So it looks like If, you’re near Ashton. This would be a good place to hit the forest. Which again, this is what’s cool about this. This is all forest land out there, which is nice. All right, I think I’m gonna leave that there for now. That was a nice little rv looking at some campgrounds. Dave (1h 26m 52s): There’s also on the website events, calendar, lots of good stuff and I think I’m gonna leave it right there and let us get outta here. I don’t wanna take too much of your time. So next time you are looking to check out the road Less travel stop in at Traveled here on the podcast anytime. And I appreciate you for checking in on the podcast today and look forward to catching up with you soon.