Archive for the ‘Idaho’ Category

Sometimes you just have to see!

Sunday, October 2nd, 2022

Driving from YNP to Boise is a a very long drive but sometimes you see something that might just need to be looked at. Craters of the Moon National Monument is right on the road we were taking and we have a pass, and it was a good time for a potty break. Well I’m not sure how I feel about this one; it is unique but the lava goes way beyond the park. So if you are just casually interested in lava like us you probably do not need to see it unless you are passing by then take a look. If you are into geology I’m sure its a must see.

That’s it! The last photo of the giant mountain of lava is so powdery but I did climb the .4 of a mile to the top! The other photos show how different the lava looks- some of it looks like giant cow patties.

Another NP off our list. The road was way too long so we will probably not have an opportunity to revisit this site but we did!

Trying to stay safe, Idaho to home

Tuesday, September 15th, 2020

Back into Idaho, we keep hearing about the fires but so far we haven’t seen any sign.

We are headed to Stanley Idaho because I read about it somewhere!  But…. of course we find other things along the way.

We found a very nice BLM site near Salmon, ID where we got the best site and I think it was $3 a night with our Golden Age Pass.  We hit the jackpot, you have to drive off the highway about 2 miles but when we get there

This is our site, and that is the river!  It takes a curve right here and there are lots of boulders so the sounds are wonderful.

Paul loves this place almost as much as Teddy; big fires, cold enough to need one and Teddy can play fetch right outside my door.  This is hard to beat, too bad I read about Stanley cause I got to move in 3 days!

Stanley!  The drive from Salmon to Stanley was beautiful. Once we got to Stanley we finally heard about the fires and a little smoke was in the air.  The  Redfish Lake was what I had heard about so we headed past Stanley a couple miles and found the lake.  I wasn’t impressed, the trees were sparse and we had seen a couple beautiful spots on our was to Stanley so we spent one night and headed back to the Forestry sites we had seen along the river.

                Now this is more like it

Stanley is a tiny town that looks like it is focused on the winter visitors.  The cell service at our site 5 miles out of town is not! so we take a drive once a day and check email and call the kids.  There is an awesome restaurant that serves great coffee and beautiful pastries.  One morning I needed to get online early so I headed to town, it was about 40 degrees and people were ordering breakfast and eating on the patio!  I am thinking their coffee and eggs were cold before they had the second bite.

The scenery here is beautiful.

This guy sat watching me one afternoon for at least an hour; maybe he was watching the river, I don’t know.

Everyday we saw bald eagles hanging along the banks of the river.  They are beautiful.

There are many hiking trails nearby. This one is right in our campground.  A nice 2 mile into the forest.

Teddy taking a dip

There are a lot of hot springs in the area.  This one is right along the highway about 5 miles from our campsite.  I always like the natural springs.  Paul likes to play.

The Sunbeam hot springs flow into the cold river but people have rigged up hoses, and rocks to contain the spring water.  It was very hot in spots.  I had to find a spot that was just warm to take a soak.

Paul doesn’t like the natural hot springs, he says he likes the temperature regulated but he had a great time playing with the hoses people had rigged up.  He spent his time moving hoses and filling the old tubs people had moved into the area.

The view of the river with a small tub built with stones.  This is the best type of hot tub in my opinion; when you get to warm just toss your arm into the river and cool right down.

Then we found this little Ghost Town, about 10 miles down a gravel road.  Custer, the dredging equipment is still there from the Gold Rush days

 

This was in one of the broken windows of the buildings that are still standing.  The dredging continued for miles along this small river leading into the Salmon river.  In its day it was a bustling goldrush town.

 

 

 

Trying to stay safe, Labor Day in Bayview

Friday, September 4th, 2020

Bayview for Labor Day, what a lovely find.  The only problem was internet or phone was only available in front of the office.  So Paul just had his morning coffee and stayed in touch.

Bayview, a quiet little spot on Lake Pend Oreille.  We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying not being in the craziness of the tourist areas near here.  Labor Day was very calm

This was the view from the coffee shop/laundry above Bayview docks.  We spent several mornings here during our stay.  The coffee was great as well as the breakfast sandwiches.  The staff was all family and so nice.

Just some of the stuff in the dock areas

 

Sometimes you are the Tourist Attraction

Friday, June 10th, 2016

While stopped at the Flying J to deposit our fees for using Diesel Fuel while driving through Idaho we are approached by several Asian people who are part of a tour group traveling to Yellowstone.  Apparently they have never scene a house on wheels because they start taking photos (with their cell phones!) and then one of them steps aboard!  Always with a smile.  And then another one!.  I was cleaning the front window and one of them takes the squeegy from me and proceeds to help remove the bugs from the front of the RV.  They took so many pictures and I never took one!  We tried to converse but all I got was lots of smile, head shakes.  I did get from one of them that they were traveling to Yellowstone!

 

Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls

We stopped for the evening in Idaho Falls and took a walk along the Snake River.  They have done a really nice job with the riverfront and the river itself.  They have created man made falls as part of the hydroelectric power.  It is beautiful and a very nice walk.  We saw lots of tourists and I think I spotted the same people that toured our RV.  Idaho Falls is the last larger city on the way to Yellowstone so it is a good spot to stop, restock before heading into the woods!

Idaho Falls Idaho Temple

Idaho Falls Idaho Temple

On the eastern bank of the river is LDS compound and this beautiful temple. We only viewed it from across the river.  Along the river we did see lots of students taking a stroll along with the many tourists.  I guess in Idaho Falls kids walk instead of texting on a Thursday evening.  That’s nice.

Flock of Geese

Flock of Geese

These geese were out for a stroll also.  Some of them didn’t like all the tourists coming up and taking photos!

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On our travels we see lots of different things than we see at home.  This is one.  I don’t remember seeing this type of bird.

Today we will be heading into Grand Teton and Yellowstone for as many days as we can find a campsite.  Photos will be abundant!

You won’t find this in the tour books

Tuesday, August 25th, 2015

Yesterday morning while I was playing fetch with Duke in front of the Elks, a very nice man stopped his truck and asked if we were coffee drinkers.  Yep,  I was just thinking about brewing myself a fresh cup from our Keurig machine.  Anyway, I told him yes and he pointed down the road, telling me past the golf course was a great coffee spot.  He said the guy ships his coffee all over the USA and has the best coffee around.  That got my attention because there were no businesses out here in the country that I could see.

So this morning Paul and I got in the car, drove up the road and sure enough right in front of a farm house was a sign ESPRESSO and an American Flag waving.  We make the turn and see a little shack and an old truck pulled up to the window. We pulled into the wrong driveway and the man in the booth steps out and says “if you want help you got to get out of my yard and come around to the window the right way!”  Great, we’ve ticked off the owner, we probably aren’t getting any coffee.

Paul,  not being intimidated backs up, pulls around and drives right up to the window where once we started chatting with the guy he was very nice, just a bit gruff, like my husband!  Great pair.  We had a nice chat, told him we heard he had great coffee and ordered a cup of coffee and a latte for me.  Wow,  right out in the middle of nowhere I’m getting my Starbucks fix and it was 1/2 the price.  We paid $4.00 for both including the cup and tax.  Then before we left the guy says to Paul “you got a dog in there?”  Oh yeah,  usually we roll down the window for Duke to say hi but this time we were so thrown off by our start that we hadn’t.  Paul rolls the window down,  the guy offers Duke a milkbone and then he says, “can he have a Pupachino?”  What?  Well of course he can have a treat.  The guy proceeds to take a small cup, fill it with whipped cream from a can, sticks 3 large milkbones around the edge and holds it out for Duke.  You should have seen our dog,  all manners were out the window!  He ate as much of the whipped cream as his tongue would reach and then grabbed the milkbones and ate those too.

I wonder if I can order a Pupachino next time Duke and I go to Starbucks?

Golfing in a spectacular landscape

Monday, August 24th, 2015

It's hard to concentrate

It’s hard to concentrate

Monday Becky picked me and we played 18 holes at Canyon Springs Golf Course where the course is challenging and the landscape is beyond beautiful.  The course is right along the Snake River in the gorge that winds its way thru Twin Falls.

The first hole,  looking towards the bridge that spans the gorge

The first hole, looking towards the bridge that spans the gorge

Becky takes a swing while I admire the waterfall spilling into the gorge

Becky takes a swing while I admire the waterfall spilling into the gorge

I really enjoyed the afternoon playing and golfed well, one of my better scores for 18 holes.  We met with Becky and Lonnie for dinner in town after where I had my first rainbow trout.  I don’t remember ever having trout but I will definitely be ordering it again.  It was really good.

 

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Sunday, August 23rd, 2015

Sunday afternoon we packed everything away, raised the jacks and headed southeast to Twin Falls, Idaho.  We are heading towards the Rocky Mountains with a few detours along the way.

We arrived at the Snake River Elks lodge and when checking in Paul found our friend Becky who we met at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.  I was planning on meeting Becky on Monday for a round of golf, so finding her here was a bonus.  I quickly grabbed my clubs and headed to the course to play 9 holes with her and a friend of hers, Pam.  It was a beautiful afternoon and I played ok.  The course is attached to the Elks Lodge but privately owned and very nice wide fareways and lots of very green grass, they must not have a water shortage here.  The smoke in the air is also much better as we get further from Washington.

All set up at the Snake River Elks Lodge

All set up at the Snake River Elks Lodge

Paul got us set up in our site while I golfed.  We are the only ones here Sunday evening and it is a very nice setting; there are corn fields all around and of course the golf course.

Lots of green lawn here

Lots of green lawn here

This is my backyard

This is my backyard

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Overhead irrigation everywhere you look

Overhead irrigation everywhere you look

A cool barn down the road

A cool barn down the road

This is a great spot for a couple of days.

Another Town, Another Fair

Saturday, August 22nd, 2015

Passing through Boise Idaho for a few days the Western Idaho Fair is going on, and it is just down the road.  I feel another eating binge coming on.

Idaho where they love their potatoes

Idaho where they love their potatoes

We started our afternoon with dessert and after cruising through the vendors building where I am happy to say I resisted the many choices of pots and pans, cheese graters, slice-it, dice-it and jewelry purchases.  We made it out of the building with my wallet still intack.  However,  food alley I was not so lucky.  We enjoyed lemonade, frozen lemonade (it was hot!), corn dog, lamb steak sandwich, a brick of curly fries and a gyro.  The Idaho Spud dessert, ice cream shaped like a potatoe, rolled in cocoa powder, split down the middle to fill it full of whipped cream, topped with crwas the best item they had!  I wanted to go back for a second one.

I did it, I really did it!

Saturday, August 22nd, 2015

When we first started this learning to eat rather than eating everything, and anything anytime I thought we will lose a few pounds, learn a couple new things about our bodies and probably keep doing what we love, EATING!  Somehow that didn’t happen and I find myself today celebrating that I finally after 30 years weigh what I should weigh.  I met my goal today!  Yippee, congratulations!  Lets celebrate!

And I did,  we had our friends Kathy and Rob, who live near Boise over for dinner and I made a really healthy dinner, Kathy brought wine which I thoroughly enjoyed and I made dessert!  I made brownies (from a box, cause I think they are just as good as the scratch ones)  and we had a scoop of Cafe Latte frozen Yogurt on top!

It was so yummy.  I promised that I would give the rest of the pan of brownies away and Paul delivered 2 large brownies to some neighbors in the RV park but the other 1/2 of the pan is sitting on my kitchen counter and I haven’t touched them!  That deserves a big pat on the back for me!

I can’t eat them.  Today we are going to the fair where I will eat lots of fun stuff so the brownies may test me again tomorrow and if I can hold off I may have another before they dry out!  Do you know how amazing that statement is?  I use to make a pan of brownies, Paul would eat 1 and I could consume the rest in 2 days max!!!

So, another milestone has been met.  I feel confident that I can do this and I also feel very proud of myself.  It’s hard but not impossible so I will keep working at it and enjoying life to the fullest.

Have a great day.  Do something you love, I am!!!

Not yet, I’m not ready

Sunday, August 16th, 2015

It went from 95 to 77 between Thursday and Saturday!  Sunday morning we woke up to needing a light jacket.  The weather slowed us down a bit but we still managed a short hike near Priest Lake and lunch on the lake.

Paul checking his email on the beach

Paul checking his email on the beach

I love to people watch!

I love to people watch!

This family of four showed up right after us and set all their stuff up, which was several loads of beach chairs, towels, toys, umbrellas and coolers.  Then the mom and oldest boy sat in the chairs and opened their books! Dad organized all their items. See how each chair has a towel?   The little guy was running from toy, to blow up toy, rolling in the sand, tromping into the water and no one seemed even a bit interested!  I guess that was why they had so many toys!!!

The lake is beautiful and when the sun finally came out about 3 pm, lots of boats were on the water.

The river flowing into the lake

The river flowing into the lake

Today we had to say goodbye to northern Idaho and head back south.  We are in Spokane for the evening and will be heading towards Boise tomorrow.

The Spokane River

The Spokane River

We had a nice walk along the Spokane River this afternoon which is only about 1 mile from the Elks where we are parked.