Sulphur Creek closed for the year.☹️

Closed for the year and maybe longer.

https://www.sulphurcreekranch.com/

Very sad, it was a great place, but will take decades or more to recover.

Condolences to the owners and employees.

I’ll miss their breakfasts.

MTV

Certainly a shame. I got the news this morning from the IAA.

It seems the Idaho backcountry has an inordinately high number of fires. I have wondered many times why so many fires.

Hate to see places like ID74 damaged

Pardon my ignorance but did they give any reason? Still looks like the lodge is open for hunting.

MW

185Midwest wrote:Pardon my ignorance but did they give any reason? Still looks like the lodge is open for hunting.

MW

They mentioned worries getting enough water, unsafe standing timber, and a lot of work to do.

unsafe standing timber?
I'll go knock it all down for free. I love cutting trees. The hardest part would be deciding which saw to take!

There seems to be quite a few closures or threats to close backcountry strips lately.

There have been many restaurants (yeah I know, it was more than that) close recently. I have whined and complained, probably here and on other forums, that the cafe across the street from the Afton airport, that I've been going to since my UL days in the '80's, closed. Is nothing sacred??! Even a good sized small town like Soda Springs ID, has NO place to get breakfast, at least Sunday mornings, except for a breakfast burrito at the Taco Time! Yet another First World problem.

Sulphur Creek LODGE wasn’t just a place for us whiny pilots to get breakfast. It was an operating lodge….you know-where dudes go to ride horseback, and hike, and enjoy the beautiful scenery, and maybe catch a fish……in gorgeous surroundings.

Well, if you’ve been by there recently, the place looks like a giant ashtray…..but many if not most of the trees are still standing….burned. Millions of them. Cut them down? Great idea…… . And, every time the wind blows hundreds of those widow makers topple. If they don’t hurt anyone, they block trails…..and, trails are what dudes use.

Sulphur creek has, or rather had an effective hydroelectric plant in the creek. Now, there’s ash and mud runoff, and it may not be possible to keep it running, at capacity.

So, you’re now running a high end lodge operation in the midst of hundreds of thousands of acres of burned trees. You ever wandered around in an area burned by wildfire?

Apparently not.

MTV

Yes, I have.
I have also cut timber in those same areas.

Their appeal to the public may be down, and over the years they will have to open trails up from the blowdowns, but the idea that its unsafe to walk around in the woods because trees may fall on you is not one I have ever bought into. On their private property I would think they could cut all the trees they want, in the wilderness area its a different situation.

Grizzly Creek Fire in western colorado got to within 3 miles of my place, I hunt some of that area. Lake Christine Fire was a couple years before that, that fire got to within 3.5 miles on the other side. I hunt and hike that area too. Both areas are coming back nicely in places and its only been a couple years.

StillLearning wrote:Yes, I have.
I have also cut timber in those same areas.

Their appeal to the public may be down, and over the years they will have to open trails up from the blowdowns, but the idea that its unsafe to walk around in the woods because trees may fall on you is not one I have ever bought into. On their private property I would think they could cut all the trees they want, in the wilderness area its a different situation.

Grizzly Creek Fire in western colorado got to within 3 miles of my place, I hunt some of that area. Lake Christine Fire was a couple years before that, that fire got to within 3.5 miles on the other side. I hunt and hike that area too. Both areas are coming back nicely in places and its only been a couple years.

Perhaps, but you are not trying to run a PROFITABLE lodge operation in the middle of a large burned area…..sure, cut ALL the dead trees on the Sulphur Creek property, but I would respectfully point out that property is a tiny portion of the land which their clients used.

Besides, this is private property….the owners don’t have to justify to you or anyone why they’re shutting down access.

I wish them only the best, and I sincerely hope Sulphur Creek Lodge will re-open one day.

MTV

Thanks Mike.

MW

mtv wrote:

StillLearning wrote:Besides, this is private property….the owners don’t have to justify to you or anyone why they’re shutting down access.

Too true.

And we don't have to justify being sad about them doing so nor wondering how valid the explanations are.