Curlew Campground

May 27th, 2024

Last week I left Utah and entered Idaho. I drove north from Snowville and crossed into Idaho’s Curlew National Grassland. The area is know for Sage and Sharptailed Grouse that perform their mating dance in March and April. I was a little late to observe. The campground seemed a convenient place to loiter over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. It was still a little to early to be up at higher elevations in Idaho, but with the holiday, I needed a reservable site so I would be sure to have a place to camp during the busy weekend.

As it turned out, the campground was deserted when I arrived on the Friday morning preceding the holiday. My first evening was completely quiet, with only the sounds of the grassland birds and a few honking Canada Geese to keep me company. Later, on Saturday afternoon, a few campers began to arrive. However, the campsites were only about 1/3 occupied.

After enduring a couple of overcast days back to the east of Ogden, Utah, I now had a good opportunity to get my batteries charged to 100% in the bright sunlight and the quiet was welcome after the prior days occasional roar of F-22 fighters overflying from Hill Air Force Base.

Other than the solitude, Curlew does not have much going for it. The sites are a little overgrown and the campground needs some general maintenance. However, it is a good stopping place on the way between the attractions of Utah and the Sawtooth Mountains, Sun Valley, and Craters of the Moon National Monument to the north.

After the holiday, I will continue on to camp somewhere near the city of Twin Falls and the popular Shoshone Falls of the Snake River. I will probably take advantage of a grocery store and laundromat in the city as well as get a refill on my number 2 propane tank. It is not all fun and games in the mountain states. There are chores to do.

I used to really look forward to holiday weekends. That extra day that didn’t require going into work were always special. The last few years of my career, I would cross my fingers, hoping I would not have to work on some sort of software, hardware, or database upgrade that could only occur when clients could afford downtime on their systems. In addition, somebody always had to be “on call” in case a problem occurred. Maybe you would enjoy the whole weekend. Other times that dreaded call came through and you had to stop what you were doing and dial into work. If you were a senior employee with years of experience, it sometimes did not matter if you were not that “on call” person. Whoever it was would escalate the problem up to you anyway. There is another issue, having to do with math and the calendar. The magic number was 4. If there were four workers who could be on call, and you happened to be the one whose turn it was, due to the way holidays fall on the calendar, you could end up being “on call” for 4 or 5 consecutive holidays. That seemed to happen to me a lot, sometimes 3 or 4 years in a row.

Anyway, enough complaining. For me that is all over. Every day is a holiday once you are retired. Even so, I still miss them. By choice, I am out here in the mountains, enjoying the solitude, scenery, wildlife, fishing, and hiking. But the downside is, you miss the people with which you celebrated. You miss them and the conversations, cookouts, and various other activities that were shared. You miss the memories. And sometimes those memories sneak out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks.