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!

2017 Idaho Eclipse

Earlier in 2017, we started planning for what people are now calling the "Great American Solar Eclipse." Neither of us had ever experienced a full solar eclipse, and this seemed like a good opportunity. The path of the eclipse stretched from coast to coast, including the Northeast corner of Georgia just a few hours drive from Atlanta. However, we're very familiar with how cloudy summer afternoons in Georgia can be, with pop-up thunderstorms that could ruin any chance of seeing an eclipse. So we did some research and found that the areas of the country with the least chance of cloud cover in late August were western Idaho and eastern Oregon. David had never been to Idaho, and Paul had only been to the part near Yellowstone, so it was an opportunity to explore a new state and have a good chance of seeing the total eclipse. We booked lodging and flights way in advance (and still ended up paying inflated prices), packed our bags, and flew to Boise.

The day of the Eclipse we left Boise at 6AM to drive north into the path of totality. There was a lot of talk about traffic, and we think that scared off some people. While traffic was heavy for that early on a Monday morning, there were no traffic jams and we had no problems. We found a spot to park and watch in Weiser, just a few miles away from the center-line of the eclipse. Weiser was busy, with a lot of people walking around town. We walked around a bit too, checked out the festival, found a good spot and settled in to watch the eclipse.

This is definitely the most people that have ever been in Weiser. The few restaurants downtown had lines out the door.

We stopped by the festival site downtown and got some breakfast tacos.

There were a lot of signs all around town.

Just Paul posing with another eclipse sign!

We found a spot just north of downtown and joined hundreds of others to watch.

A guy next to us built an elaborate viewing tube that everyone was checking out.

Crowds gathered for the eclipse.

Ready for the eclipse with a special local beer.

Proper eclipse eye protection.

Ready for totality!

I think this plane was turning to give passengers an eclipse view.

From where we were (44.2586° N, 116.9682° W), the eclipse started at 10:10AM and lasted until 12:48PM, with 2 minutes and 6 seconds of totality occurring at 11:26AM. When it first started, we could see the moon starting to move across the face of the sun using our solar glasses. As the partial eclipse continued, there was a noticeable difference in lighting and temperature. We managed to get a few pictures as the eclipse proceeded. You can't point your camera right at the sun - sounds obvious enough - it damages the sensors and the picture wouldn't come out anyway. We don't have a fancy camera, but Paul bought a piece of filter paper (the same stuff eclipse glasses use) and held it in front of his camera lens and sensors. Kind of a low-budget solar camera filter - and it worked!

Part way through the eclipse.

Going...

Going...

A tiny sliver of sun still visible a few minutes before totality.

Full eclipse! This lasted for 2 minutes and 6 seconds. The picture doesn't even begin to capture what it looked like in person.

It was absolutely eerie. Dark sky and what looked like dawn 360 degrees around us.

Birds flocking right after totality. We hadn't seen any birds all morning.

It was amazing to see the shadow move in. Totality was really bizarre. A few minutes before the sunlight looks really weird. There's one last flash of light (the diamond ring effect), then it was safe to remove our glasses and observe the full eclipse. The corona was incredible; a bright white halo surrounding a black orb. We could clearly see an orange solar prominence as well. The two minutes of totality flew by. After the total eclipse ended, we could see the sunlight moving across the distant mountains. It very quickly grew bright again, and the streetlights tuned off. 

The solar eclipse was an amazing experience. It's hard to describe just how different 100% is from even 99%. If you ever have the chance to observe totality, do it! So, any plans for 2024? :)

Gulf Coast Weekend

There's a place in the US that the locals lovingly refer to as "LA." No, not Los Angeles. A place in the South. No, not Louisiana. It's "Lower Alabama," the part of Alabama stretching from Mobile to the border with Georgia. Maybe not the most exciting of destinations, but we set out with the goal to visit the brand new Park at Owa so Paul could ride their three roller coasters. In a quick weekend trip we managed to squeeze in some history, culture, coasters, food, and even some beach time! We started in Mobile, and walked around the city a bit at night.

The lobby of our hotel was beautiful.

Peach cobbler for dessert at the Noble South.

A fountain in Bienville Square.

Dauphin street is pretty lively.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

The very odd "Temple" in downtown Mobile. Formerly a Scottish Rite building, now an events space.

Street art in Mobile.

Downtown at night...

...and in the morning

We drove by the cathedral again on our way out of town.

Mobile is surprising. It's quite sleepy and a bit rundown in spots, but it has a lot of historic buildings and a lot of potential. It's a bit like a cross between New Orleans and Savannah, but not on the same level as those places. On Saturday morning we drove an hour Southeast of Mobile to Owa, the new amusement park, and spent about an hour there. It's a nice little park. We hit a few other kiddie coasters in the area before heading to Gulf Shores for lunch, a little time on the beach, and a visit to an old Mobile Bay Fort.

We arrived bright and early - and crossed our fingers for no rain.

Paul with a new credit!

Rollin' Thunder, the big coaster at the park.

We stopped by a nearby go-kart place for another little credit. Wheee!

Sadly, this one was closed. :(

Lunch in Gulfport at Bill's by the Beach. David has a fish po-boy and Paul has shrimp and grits!

Yay, shrimp and grits!

The beach in Gulfport is really nice.

We drove out to Fort Morgan, on the end of a peninsula at the entrance to Mobile Bay.

Fort Morgan was completed in 1834, and was captured by the confederacy in 1861.

Some re-enactors. Really hoping they're not supposed to be confederate soldiers....

The beaches near Fort Morgan are marred by the ugly oil rigs that dot the bay.

To wrap up our time in Alabama, we made a stop at the very popular beach on Perdido Key, then drove on to Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola has a really nice downtown with a lot of restaurants and shops. There's also a historic area with some old houses and an old church. We were pleasantly surprised.

Perdido Key where the Perdido River hits the Gulf near the Florida border.

Sand dunes on Perdido Key.

We drove past "Flora-bama," a crazy tourist trap that was causing a traffic jam.

Pensacola's walkable downtown.

A beautiful old building in downtown Pensacola.

Another nice street.

Of course we stopped at a brewery! Pensacola Bay Brewery.

Beers on the patio across from Old Christ Church (built in 1832).

Some historic houses near Seville Square.

Sunset across Pensacola Bay.

Old Christ Church at night.

On our way back to Atlanta on Sunday we took the scenic route through Alabama, and stumbled upon the highest point in Florida before stopping for lunch in Troy, Alabama.

It's not every day you visit the highest point in a state!

The log book at the high point was interesting.

A neat building in downtown Troy.

Southern lunch in Troy at B.Graves was delicious.

A confederate monument (SIGH) in downtown Troy.

Overall it was a quick, fun weekend in Alabama and Florida. We'll be back eventually to ride that closed roller coaster. :)