Opening Day of Elk Season

Yesterday was the opener for elk season in Idaho's Unit 39, if you had a controlled hunt tag that is. I decided to open the season on the Boise Ridge. This area is just above the interface of the high desert and the mountainous region of Idaho. It provides great views because everything to the south and west is desert and you can literally see for hundreds of miles.

Yesterday morning the weather was by far more interesting than the hunting. I got absolutely drenched in a big rain storm that blew in from the east. I could see it coming, and I could tell it was going to be wet. This allowed me to get my rain clothes on in time. However, after it stopped I decided to do some bushwhacking through some tall chaparral. I might as well have gone swimming as all of this was soaked.

Once I got back to the pickup I was able to look off of the ridge, down towards my home. At one point I saw that fog was forming along the Boise River in the valley, starting to shroud the hill above my home. About ten minutes later the fog had developed so quickly that much of Boise was hidden.

Later in the morning I drove down from the approximate 6000 feet. I was one of the coolest things ever when I entered the fog. I was driving through an area called Rocky Canyon which has twists and turns and steep canyon walls. As I came around one curve I could see that the fog was making its way up the road and coming around the next curve. I would not see any fog above the walls, but it was below the walls, following the road. It was very cool.

When I got down to Boise I realized that it was not foggy. There was a low stratus cloud that had formed over the city, but there was fine visibility at the approximately 2700 feet elevation. So, there was a significant ceiling of alto-stratus and a thick layer of wet stratus below it, just over the river area. The only way to see these was to be up the mountain like I was. I have attached pictures.