On Sunday morning May 18th we left the Unita NF camp and hustled through Salt Lake City and got through before the traffic got too outrageous. Then we just continued north on the freeway through the rest of the day. I really like northern Utah and southeast Idaho, it has a lot of beauty in its own distinctive way. Much of it is high plains so it is sagebrush country. But you are almost always driving in a valley between two mountain range, and usually the mountains are close, so you have lots to look at. Much of the way is agriculture so you see lots of green fields.
As is our habit we didn’t drive very far; we were just inside the Idaho border when we stopped for the night. I’d looked ahead and found some Forest Roads very near to the freeway so we stopped at the first one to give it a try. It was just a single road that was very short, so I wasn’t confident it would have camping on it. Turns out I was right, we never even found the Forest Road! Oh well, these things happen.
Because I wasn’t confident of that road, I had a back-up plan ready to go. There was another Forest Road just a few miles up the freeway, but it didn’t have an exit. So we drove down a frontage road until we came to an underpass that led directly to the Forest Road we were looking for. The Delorme Atlas is also a topographic map so I could tell by the elevation lines that it was up a pretty steep hill. But it was in the perfect spot for us so we gave it a try anyway.
 
We went under the underpass and it ran into the Forest Road. The sign with the number was not at the entrance but it was clear by the style of signs on the road that this was in a National Forest, and eventually we did come to the number of the road on a sign. After you’ve been in enough National Forests you start to get a feel for the look and design they use and you can spot a National Forest sign even if it isn’t clearly marked as NF or BLM. So if you’re not sure where you are, keep your eye out for anything that would indicate you were on Public Land.
We headed up the hill and the road was fairly steep and rough but not an issue for anyone familiar with these kinds of roads. That’s one thing I’ve noticed whenever I find a campsite, I will think the road into it is a piece of cake and inevitably someone will comment on how bad the road was for them. So I’ve come to realize that my ideas about road drive ability and difficulty are very different than the average persons. We’ve become so accustomed to paved super-roads that when we are forced to use any dirt roads we feel unsafe and unsure. I think it’s pretty sad!
It’s become something of a joke to Judy and I; I’m all the time trying to get her to go down some terrible looking road and she gets all wide-eyed and concerned looking (like a deer caught in headlights). I’ve learned when I see that look I’ve pushed her to her limits and need to back-off! I’ve gone down enough bad roads to know the limits of the vans and my ability so I would push right up to the edges but she has never done anything like this so her limits are much shorter than mine. She really is a trooper though and has gone plenty of places that were scary for her.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a bad road, just a bit steep. We found a nearly level spot big enough for the two of us and settled in for the night. We were high above the freeway and looking down at it so we had very good Verizon 4g data. That’s the good thing about finding campsites as close as possible to the freeway, you generally get data. That’s also one of the reasons we stop early for the night, so we can get on-line and stay in touch with everyone.
Finding it is fairly easy. You get off of I15 just inside the Idaho-Utah border  at exit . Because no exits go directly to the Forest Road, you have to turn west and go under the freeway to the frontage road and turn north. Keep your eye on the first underpass on the freeway and turn right (east) to go under it. From there just keep going straight up the hill on the road until you come to the level spot that was our campsite. Any car or van can make it.
It was a pretty enough camp to take some pictures; I hope you enjoy them.