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South Shore Access and ATV trail

Henry's Lake, Island Park, ID.

To answer several questions that I have received about access to the Cliffs, the south shore of the lake, and ATV riding in the area.  So once again my wife and I hopped on a couple of our machines and took a spin around the lake. 

This trail area is mostly open country lacking the trees that some of the other trails in the area enjoy.  It is however an easy trail with some beautiful scenery of Henry's Lake and provides access to fish from the cliffs and south shore of the lake.

Leaving Jared's Wild Rose Ranch Resort, you turn left onto Highway 87 for about 1/4 mile until you reach the Henry's Lake Road (Staley Springs turn off.)  This is a T intersection where you must turn right.  As I read the ATV maps, this begins one of many ATV riding trails in the area.  The first couple of miles is paved and then turns into a gravel road.  Expect cars, joggers, etc on this part of the ride.  After a few miles you will come to another T intersection.  Continuing straight here will take you to the Red Rock Wild Life Preserve, which I will review later, or to the Continental Divide Trail.  A left turn puts you on Red Rock Road and continues around Henry's Lake.

Following the road to the left, another mile or so puts you back on a paved road near the meadows view ranch.  This road can be reached from Highway 20, just watch for the Meadows View signs.  You will continue for a couple more miles passing two trails that lead up into the hills on the right, I will re-visit these trails at another time. 

Just as you approach the Red Rock RV Park on the right side of the road, there is a dirt road that turns off to the left.  The road starts out fairly good.  in fact we say a number of campers including a few nice sized RVs parked on the shore of the lake.  They have no facilities other then chemical toilets, but I guess the price is right and you have lake access almost from your door.

Here there are a couple of easy access points going down to the lake.  As you continue around the road becomes more worn, and in some places steep.  I eventually reached a point where my wife a novice refused to go any further.  It is not that the trail got really bad, but she is normally in a wheel chair, and felt uncomfortable going any further.  I continued on the trail for a short time later, and found it leads down to the Outlet.