Day trip to Custer City

Earlier this summer, we heard about Custer City and have been waiting for the perfect weekend to make a visit.  Custer City is an old mining town that has now turned into a Ghost Town tucked away in a beautiful canyon, one that makes you fall in love with Idaho even more.  Custer City is very well preserved and has a lot of volunteers to make your experience even more enriching.  

The ride up to Custer City is just as enchanting as the old town.  You travel along the Salmon River for a majority of your trip.  The town is located about 23 miles from Stanley.

This dredge is an old metal/wood boat that back in the 50's basically gobbled up a good portion of the Salmon River looking for gold.  They found over $1,000,000 worth of gold!  It's rumored to be more gold than found in California. The tour of the dredge was fascinating, but went right over the kid's heads.  

This is the view from Custer City---just lovely! 

 They still have quite a few of the original houses decorated with the original furniture.  Lots of old stories are posted and told around the town and I kept wanting to learn more and more.  It's a very fascinating town, probably one of the best ghost towns that I have ever visited.  

Panning for gold was one of our favorite activities. A nice volunteer helped us find our spec of gold.  The kids were hoping for large chunks of gold, but were satisfied with their spec.  It made us realize that searching for gold is not as easy as it would seem.

You can actually walk a long distance checking out old ruins and marker sites. Since the location is so nice, it makes for a great time.  All the volunteers were very knowledgable and friendly.

By the time you are done with Custer City, you may be hungry.  Luckily for you, Grumpy's North just opened up at Sunbeam which is on your way back to Stanley.  

We chose to sit outside surrounded by pinetrees,  overlooking the highway and the river. Grumpy's, which is only open on weekends during the summer, was a perfect way to end our day trip.

Directions to Custer City:  10 miles from Highway 75 on Forest Road 013.  If you are coming from Stanley, once you see Grumpy's North, turn left and continue on down the road.