By Travis Bullock

Photos courtesy of Mile High Outfitters

I’m moving here!” At fourteen years of age, that’s what I told my mom, dad, and little brother as we rounded the corner and came into view of Round Valley along the upper end of the Salmon River. Challis, which is the county seat of Custer County, sits slightly elevated in the middle of the high-mountain oasis of Round Valley, with a broad view facing east. I think angels were singing when I saw Challis for the first time. I knew it was where I wanted to live.

When I was growing up on a small ranch in Emmett, we did not have the luxury of going on vacation to Disneyland or some beach in California, like other kids did. Instead we rode horses for ten days each summer through the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness, which was known back then as the Idaho Primitive Area. All our work during the year of irrigating, putting up hay, and mending fences was well worth the wait for this ten-day vacation in the mountains. Mom and Dad didn’t have a lot of money, but we did have horses. 

To be fair, if you had told me I had to go sit on a beach in California and give up our annual wilderness fishing trip, I probably would have thrown a temper tantrum. My kid-world revolved around central Idaho and all the treasures it held. In my dreams, no fish was safe along the Salmon River and its tributaries.

One year we rode our horses down Big Creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, on a hot August day. My brother and I couldn’t wait to fish the clear, cool waters flowing beside us. As we rode farther downstream we came upon Taylor Ranch, a private in-holding willed to the University of Idaho by Jess and Dorothy Taylor. The caretakers were a couple by the names of Con and Tina Hourihan.