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!

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? :)