O’Hara Bar Campground, Idaho

July 2019 Trailer Trip

On July 16th, 2019, we arrived at O’Hara Bar Campground in Idaho. The campground has three loops. The first loop is closer to the river and more open than the other two, the second loop is heavily forested, and the third loop is heavily forested and better suited for smaller trailers and tent camping. The campground is immediately south of the Selway River and is an amazing spot to camp; I’d love to go back!

The last turn to the campground is at the confluence of the Lochsa River and the Selway River where you turn east off of Highway 12 onto Selway Road. Both rivers are quite large, and the confluence area is gorgeous. There is an RV park right at this intersection where toys can be rented, lodging can be found, and snacks can be purchased.

When we arrived, there were only a few available non-reservable sites, and we chose site number 9. The main campground road is quite narrow with lots of brush and trees on both sides. What appeared to be an easy site to back into turned out to be a little tricky due to the lack of space to maneuver the truck. However, with a bit of effort, my amazing wife put our trailer in the right spot, leaving room for the truck in front of it. While we weren’t on the river, this was one of my favorite places we visited. While we were here, I had to run the generator to charge the batteries due to the dense foliage overhead that reduced the effectiveness of our solar panels. Our favorite site at this campground is site number 32. Site 32 is the first in the campground from the entrance and is a back-in site right on the river.

The campground reminded me of Oregon, with the thick underbrush, large ferns, and fresh berries growing everywhere. It was a pleasant place to relax in, walk around in, and fish the nearby Selway River. On one of our walks, I heard what sounded like a rolling dutch oven chasing us. When we turned to investigate, we saw a boxer puppy, about a year old, tied to a trailer sway bar chasing us down. That little sway bar didn’t stand a chance of holding back a sizeable playful puppy that wanted to see us and our dog, Leo. Glad it was friendly!

There is one unique and sort of annoying thing at this campground. The water system is fed by a large water tank that is filled from a well with an associated propane-powered pump. On the weekends when the campground is busy, the pump runs every day for several hours to fill the water tank. The shed housing the pump is south and east across the road and up a hill from site number 9 and is quite loud like an open framed RV generator. It is certainly tolerable, but if it gets to you, there are plenty of beautiful places to go for a couple of hours a day.

The Selway is a gorgeous river that I couldn’t pass up for fishing. I put on my waders and boots, and tolerated the pain they caused to my ankle injury for a few hours and caught five fish. I brought my son out to the place where I was fishing, and he caught what I think was his first fish using Euro Nymphing techniques. It was fun watching him find success. The river rocks in the Selway were very slippery. Wading was more like controlled slipping.

During our last full day, we traveled down the Canyon to Kooskia, Idaho to acquire groceries, so we didn’t have to shop on Sunday when we were moving to the next campsite. Kooskia is a small place, but the grocery store was quite sufficient for our needs.

On July 21st, 2019, we left O’Hara Bar Campground with the expectation of moving four and a half hours to Tin Can Flats Campground. We thought we would read from the Come Follow Me guide as we drove. However, the best-laid plans change. Our son informed us that he was out of clean clothes, so we had to figure out a laundry stop. We found a laundry mat in Lolo, Montana and spent a few hours there cleaning our clothes.

While we were at the laundry, our son got all excited about the nearby Subway sandwich shop. We decided to have lunch there. Earlier in the day, when we left camp, my wife told me there was one light on our black tank indicator, indicating that the tank was near empty and not needing to be dumped. However, there was really three light on, indicating the tank was two thirds full. We found a local dump station and spent another 45 minutes there.

While in Lolo, we came up with two possible destinations. The first was Holland Lake Campground that was only 1.5 hours away, and the other was our previous planned destination of Tin Can Flats Campground. We opted for Holland Lake. On our way, we passed through Missoula, Montana, and bought Montana fishing licenses. After arriving at Holland Lake, we found both loops full. We tried a local boondocking site, but it was full as well. We finally found a spot at Lindbergh Lake. We made every effort to keep the Sabbath day holy but ended up doing all sorts of things we didn’t have planned. The best-laid plans …

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