We’ve returned back home today! We’re super excited and cant believe we’ve been gone a year now! We’ve been through nearly every state and seen soo many things! Each corner, and even the middle, of the country have their own unique features. We feel very privileged to have been able to do this and are very thankful. Here’s a little “tip of the hat” to our home state of Idaho. Some pictures are from past years.
South, East to west.
We’ve never been, but if you happen to pass by, Craters of the Moon National park, there’s spatter cones, a crater and caves to see. I pulled these pics from the park webpage. We’ve seen these sorts of things on other adventures here in the west, there being many volcanoes, part of the pacific ring of fire.
South middle Idaho.
Twin Falls
Shoeshine Falls
Bruneau Sand Dunes
There is an observatory here and rv campsite. Watch out for white scorpions at night!
South West Idaho.
Boise. Or Treasure Valley. Including numerous small cities and towns. Surrounded by irrigated farms, orchards and vineyards. Chaparral or dessert environment with mountains to the north and upwards towards the Canadian border. Tons of sun, no humidity and mild winters. Plenty of things to do indoors and outdoors for all ages and places to eat, for those foodies.
Some of our favorite places are Bacon, Moo City and Big Mamas for breakfast. Wylder for burgers and Big Daddys for smokey bbq. Alivita and Caci for homemade pastas. Amano’s for gourmet mexican and great cocktails-expect it to be a bit pricey. For the best salted caramel ice cream you’ll ever taste, the Sea Salt Creamery. Lastly, Form & Function and Push & Pour for coffee. Cheers!
Note, for anyone with any breathing difficulties, poor health or sulfur intolerance, the valley may not be the best place to live as there is a sugar beet factory that still produces a fair bit of air pollution.
Half hour north into the foothills and to the mountains there’s a ski hill. Tubing too. There’s a manmade tubing hill in town too! It was one of our favorite winter things to do along with the skating area at Indian Plaza in Caldwell.
The state also has a variety of hot springs to choose from. One of our favorite is Kirkham Hot Springs. Its an afternoon drive in the mountains, along side a river. The hot spring comes out the side of the hill, pools a few times before falling over the rocky river bank and pools in several places before running into the river. When its cold out is steamy which is really fun, even cooler when its snowing!
Mid Idaho there’s white water rafting. Zip lines. Lakes.
More north you can dig for garnets at Emerald Mine. Idaho is a gem state. Part of the gold rush days. Note you need to make reservations to do this and when we had to wait until the next summer. Idaho is one of two places in the world where you can find garnets, star garnets are even more unique.
We’ve took out findings to a local jeweller to look through and left them there while on our rv adventures. While we were in Boise we stopped in and decided to have some worked on. Great keepsakes.
It’s a great state for people who love the outdoors. It’s also a great location for weekend trips to the coast.
I should also say, it’s very patriotic state. July 4th celebrations in Star are unlike anywhere else we’ve been.
Tubing in Eagle
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