Has anyone been here recently? What is there nearby to do (fish, resort, food) and how are the airfield conditions?

Is it worth a visit or no?

I flew in there for a day trip about 3 years ago to see what's there, the answer is not much. It is a well maintained gravel strip, with tie down chains on the end near "town". I believe there was an outhouse near the tie downs, but I won't swear to it. About the only thing to do there is fish, and you need a boat for that. As for food, resort, etc., I flew to Fairfield for lunch. If you're just looking for an easy day trip, it's not worth the gas.

There used to be a good restaurant there. You could sit on the deck over looking the reservoir. It was a nice setting and good food. But the reservoir is a puddle compared to what it used to be. I've got no idea what's there now. Over Memorial Day, I heard several planes going in there. There is a place to grab grub at Fairfield. If you're there, you might as well hop over and check it out! Make sure to put a pirep on Shortfield.

Indeed, for anyone passing through that high desert area, either Fairfield (food, mo gas, grocery store, restaurant, and motel directly across the street) or Picabo (mogas you can taxi to, convenience store) are a better choice FWIW. I think I've stopped at Magic once, maybe twice, in the last few decades, still glad it's there however

Thanks for the honest input guys. "It's not worth the gas". That's really the litmus test. Since we have a few locals here, can you recommend other day trips?

Smiley creek is a nice breakfast flight, or you can camp on the field overnight. Garden valley also has camping on field and fishing from the edge of the airport. If you're interested in crawling thru lava tubes, try smith's prairie.

Hell, from Boise, it's a day trip to fly down to the Alvord Desert to play, and stop in at Field's Station for a milkshake.

Gump

Dale Moul wrote:Smiley creek is a nice breakfast flight, or you can camp on the field overnight. Garden valley also has camping on field and fishing from the edge of the airport. If you're interested in crawling thru lava tubes, try smith's prairie.

Where's the Lava tubes? My avatar pic was taken at smiths prarie.

I will have to try Smiley sometime, but would like to go with someone who knows the area as I haven't been there.

GV had enjoyable camping. Last time I went though, it was quite busy as a 180 club was there... and me and an RV crashed their party