More Idaho: Volcanoes, Waterfalls, and the Oregon Trail

On our visit to Idaho, in addition to seeing the eclipse and hiking in the Sawtooth National Forest, we spent some time exploring some of the other natural sights in the state. Idaho is a huge, so we barely scratched the surface, but we saw as much as we could of the Southwest part of the state.

Arrowleaf flowers were all over the state.

A lot of our drive through Idaho looked about like this though.

A bee doing its thang.

On our way to Sawtooth National Forest, we stopped at the Shoshone Ice Cave. If you can't tell by their super awesome website, it's basically a tacky tourist attraction. But the cave itself is neat - a lava tube that has ice even in the height of summer. Worth a 20 minute stop if you happen to be in the area. Our tour guide was 18 years old, started every sentence with the word "well" and really had no idea why there was ice in the cave. So, plan ahead.

You walk on a suspended bridge over the ice.

David in the chilly (25F) cave.

Hiking back up out of the cave.

The historically accurate "caveman riding a dinosaur" statue outside the cave.

Ummm... yeah.

After spending a full day in the Sawtooth wilderness, we decided to take the scenic route to Boise to take in a few sites in southern and central Idaho. Our major stop was Craters of the Moon National Monument, formed from volcanic eruptions starting 15,000 years ago, with the most recent about 2,000 years ago. These same eruptions 2,000 years ago formed the lava tubes at the Shoshone Ice Cave.

It's backlit, the air was hazy from wildfires, and there was nobody there to take the picture for us... but here's proof we visited!

Lava Lake, on the edge of the Craters of the Moon.

Formations on the Devil's Orchard trail.

Climbing up to the top of Inferno Cone (6,181 feet).

Almost there!

Hazy views from the top of Inferno Cone.

It normally would be a great view, but visibility was poor due to wildfire smoke and dusty air.

A lonely tree at the top of Inferno Cone.

Look, it's Paul on a log!

Walking across the crunchy lava rocks.

Neat old lava flows.

The North Crater Trail.

Peering down into one of the big craters.

The trail meandered across old lava fields.

The contrast between different types of rock was interesting.

After finishing up at Craters of the Moon, we headed down to Twin Falls to grab lunch and check out Shoshone Falls, The Niagara of the West. The falls are a large drop-off of the Snake River in a deep gorge. The flow was pretty low this time of year but the falls were still pretty impressive (earlier this year it looked like this). The city of Twin Falls wasn't anything special. Boise is clearly Idaho's town with the most going on.

The Snake River from an overlook in Twin Falls.

The main part of Shoshone Falls.

During high flow it's one big waterfall.

The Snake River Canyon.

Closer to Boise, we stopped by the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. It's named after an extinct North American horse species. You can't actually access the area where many of the fossils were found, but we went to the small visitor's center in downtown Hagerman and then hiked a bit of the Emigrant Trail. The original route of the Oregon Trail passed through this area, and we saw some traces of it.

The famous Oregon Trail ("Paul has died of dysentery")

These are traces of the original wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail.

It was a stark but oddly beautiful landscape.

Hiking the emigrant trail. It was hot and dry.

The trail was swarming with black ground wasps and grasshoppers.

We saw a couple of these guys along the trail. Probably a long-nosed leopard lizard.

This one was molting.

A BEAUTIFUL mural in the tiny town of Hammett.

Boise!

On our trip to view the solar eclipse in Idaho, Boise served as the home base. Overall, Boise is a pretty nice town. It's not very big, but has some amenities you'd expect in a larger city. There are decent restaurants, lots of bicycle lanes and great trails. The city center is very clean and walkable with a mix of old and new buildings. There are plenty of tree-filled residential neighborhoods adjacent to the city center - Boise's nickname is the "city of trees." Coming from Atlanta (the REAL city of trees) we'd still say Boise is well forested, especially compared to the rest of Idaho.

The first thing we did the morning after we arrived in Boise was climb Table Rock. This hill on the edge of town affords great views over the entire city and the nearby plains and mountains. It's a steep hike up, though, and there were lots of other folks hiking and jogging getting their morning off on the right foot.

Sweaty David on top of Table Rock.

There were tons of Arrowleaf flower on Table Rock and everywhere else in Idaho.

Boise down below. From here it really does look like a city of trees.

The hills leading away from Boise. No trees here!

After our morning hike, we took a tour of the Idaho Capitol. Unfortunately, there were no guided tours available this time of year, but there were pamphlets and self-guided resources. Overall, this capitol's interior was pretty drab, with very little artwork on the inside, but the exterior is very grandiose and some of the details in the dome and senate chambers are really great as well.

Idaho State Capitol Building.

Ornate dome.

Interior of the dome. Lots of natural light made the dome really colorful.

Interior. Lots of marble (and fake marble) but devoid of artwork.

Idaho Senate Chambers.

Before heading out to the Sawtooth Mountains (see that post here), we had lunch at Cloud 9 Brewery and visited the North End (think micro-Virginia Highlands in Atlanta). It's a nice residential neighborhood with a few local restaurants.

Beer and Lunch at Cloud 9 Brewery.

North End neighborhood.

Obvi there was ice cream.

After returning from our 2 day trip to the mountains and plains of Central Idaho, we poked around Boise for a bit more. Below are a few things we saw and did. Two other restaurants we'd  highly recommend are Wild Root Cafe and Market and Big City Coffee and Cafe (home of the biggest scones we've ever seen).

Shopping & restaurants at Boise Center.

We had some beer and food at Bar Gernika.

Bar Gernika is on "the Basque block," a cute street named after the city's Basque population.

There are quite a few old sandstone and brick buildings in downtown.

Another street full of old buildings.

We played a few games at Spacebar, a neat underground bar and arcade.

Ice cream at The Stil in downtown. This place was delicious!

Downtown and the Capitol Building.

The hills are pretty close to the north and east of the city center.

Downtown cuteness.

We stopped by Albertson's Stadium, home of Boise State and the "smurf turf."

No trip to a rural state is complete without a photo-op with giant livestock (see our North Dakota post)!

Adventures in Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness

On our visit to Idaho for the eclipse, we spent two nights in Ketchum, a ski resort town in a valley just south of the Sawtooth National Forest. Ketchum is a cute little town, but our main reason for being in the area was to do some hiking in the mountains. On Saturday morning (the weekend before the eclipse) we hit the road by 6AM and drove 65 miles north to the Iron Creek trailhead to hike to Sawtooth Lake. We saw a beautiful sunrise along the way.

The Sawtooth mountains lit up at sunrise.

Sunrise over the mountains.

Our hike for the day was amazing - and long. We hiked for 14 miles along Iron Creek, past Alpine Lake, around the edge of Sawtooth Lake, and over a ridge through a burned area toward the McGown Lakes. It was a bit chilly when we started, but starting so early was a great idea to avoid the heat and crowds.

The trail wound through trees, past lakes, and over ridges. It was pretty quiet for the first 4 miles.

Chipmunks were about the only animals we saw (besides birds).

Heading up to the mountains.

Don't fall! We had to cross a number of streams on the hike.

You can see why they call them "Sawtooth Mountains." Very distinct and beautiful peaks.

Snow near the shore of Alpine Lake.

Crossing over the ridge between Alpine Lake and Sawtooth Lake.

We hiked up far enough for snow!

Sawtooth Lake was spectacular, with the snowy mountains on the opposite shore.

It was a beautiful scene on a sunny day with cool mountain air.

An overview of the lake.

We posed for a picture on the hike out, as the trail was getting pretty crowded.

Panorama of the Sawtooths.

We hiked past this particularly jagged section again on the hike out.

We passed through a couple of meadows with colorful wildflowers.

Two thumbs up for the Sawtooth Lake hike.

After our long hike, we stopped in the town of Stanley for lunch, then walked around a bit at Redfish Lake. The lake was named after the Sockeye Salmon that used to migrate up the rivers to breed in the lake. Dams and over-fishing almost put an end to that migration, but recently the fish have been reintroduced. The lake was crowded with families enjoying the beautiful Saturday weather. We took a short hike along a stream and past the shore of the lake.

Paul's turn to not fall in the water!

People riding horses across the hills around Redfish Lake.

Rapids on Redfish Lake Creek.

At this point we'd walked more than 17 miles, so we drove back to Ketchum to relax and have some dinner. A very successful day.

Downtown Ketchum was cute and had quite a few restaurants and upscale shops.

Dinner at Sawtooth Brewery.

We highly recommend hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains. It's a vast wilderness with great vistas. While we didn't see any of the big animals we've seen in other forests and national parks, the mountain and lake views more than made up for that. I think we'll be back some day!