The summer has started to heat up here in southeast Idaho. After recovering from the Big Elk trail ride Gari & I got ready to camp in a favorite place of ours near Mackey, Idaho. Mackey was the place Gari & I first ever stayed in Idaho back in the fulltime RV days around 2017. We were smitten with Idaho right then. This month we had made a return reservation with a fishing guide up in Stanley, Idaho for June 24th. We will make a separate post on the fishing float expedition in Stanley. We thought we would camp up on Mackey Reservoir and do a little warm up fishing there. Gari had noticed a waterfall on Google Maps and we thought that would be a good hike to make.
We arrived at our preferred camp site below on Thursday June 18th, leaving directly from Gari's physical therapy appointment for her hand in Idaho Falls. That saved us an hour pulling time since we go right through Idaho Falls to get to Mackey. We like the camping site below for several reasons... in no particular order. We are always by ourselves there as the next sites are away and out of sight. The cell signal is very bad at the reservoir, often zero signal; however here below the dam is a bit closer to Mackey and we usually have just enough signal to to have text capability for at least half of the day. This year's reception seemed a fraction better. There is usually much less wind below the dam and we like that. At the dam spillway, which is a very short walk from this camping spot, offers some interesting fishing options; we call it the fish bowl because it is a big round deep area where lots of fish gather and feed.
The next morning we were anxious to set off for the Waterfall Hike. Before we departed on the camping trip, as chance would have it, our friend Scott mentioned to us that he met a gal at the Brittany Spaniel dog show he was competing in that works in the Mackey Fish and Wildlife Office in Mackey. She had told Scott that there was a little creek that had Golden Trout stocked in it near Mackey! Scott mentioned the name of the creek is Lower Cedar Creek. Well lo and behold, the waterfall creek hike was up just that Lower Cedar Creek! Now I was REALLY excited to take this hike! We would love to see or catch a Golden Trout. The trail head is about 5 miles up a sketchy dirt road. We expected to see NOONE... and at first we didn't see anyone. It looked like the dirt road was going to take us to that draw between the peaks.
Almost to the trail head below. We had seen two vehicles by this time going up the same dirt road.
Gari sets her GPS near the trail head.
A short way up looking back on the trail head parking lot below. When we rounded the corner to the parking area, we saw a camper van already there. Right behind us came two other vehicles, two side by sides and a quad ATV! So much for not seeing a soul! Being the guy I am, I went ahead and spoke to just about every person aboard those vehicles... that's the way it is in the west. The guy on the quad was a local farmer in Mackey who had only been farming there for two years. He was adjusting the head gates for his irrigation right there at the trail head. He confirmed the Golden Trout were raised by the 4H Club at the Mackey High School, and stocked just a few weeks prior.
I gathered up my fly fishing gear and went in with everything needed to get in the creek and see if I could catch a Golden. Spoiler alert, no Golden Trout seen or caught. I did try several spots along the creek, but access to the creek was difficult and the current was very high with little holding areas for any fish.
We started in on the hike and the scenery was magnificent. We saw signs for an historic dam site, the waterfall and the creek spring. It appeared that this hike was more than just about a waterfall. We weren't sure what to expect for the spring as we had not heard anything about that.
We spotted a little thimble eye way up high.
A tall pointy peak...
Ridge-line before trees...
Magnificent valley walls...
A ridge-line going up the valley wall...
The historic dam site... what is left of it.
Selfie time at the waterfall.
Better view of the waterfall.
Big spring surprise! The entire creek flow was coming right out of this large rock!
That's us at the spring
The coolest spring of Lower Cedar Creek, Mackey, Idaho
Back at the camp site below the dam. We tried fishing several places. We were persistent. We caught a few small fish, nothing spectacular, although I did have two colossal strikes, both of which I missed on the hook set. Below fishing hard on the river below the dam spot #1
We drove a short distance to the lake side of the dam, that way we had all our gear in the truck and had a nice picnic in between fishing sessions. We still saw a tiny bit of snow in clefts at the mountain tops. June 22, 2026.
Beautiful Mackey Reservoir. We had no wind this time, love that.
A little casual fishing in flop flop shoes at the dam (left)
Below the dam spot #2
In the lake up to my door hinges wading...
Trudging through the willows to sneak up on a good spot. We fished it hard at Mackey, but the results were underwhelming.
Stay tuned for the Stanley fishing float trip, the results were excellent!
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