DAY 6 – 9 ~ IDAHO

Now we head north making our way through Idaho.  We will spend the next four days in the cities of Twin Falls and Boise and an overnight stay in the small town of Grangeville before we head into Montana.

DAY 6 - TWIN FALLS

It was an uneventful drive into Idaho to Twin Falls.  After 249 miles and 5 hours we arrive at 93 RV Park about 6 miles outside of Twin Falls.  This RV park is right next to Highway 93, thus the name.  It’s an okay park, small but clean and nicely laid out.  At the entrance is a large area of bearded irises in full bloom…beautiful. 

Even though we are only staying one night we did unhook and drove into town to have a late lunch, early dinner (@ 4pm).  After the meal, it was still daylight so we decided to visit Twin Falls landmark, the Snake River Canyon and Shoshone Falls.  There is another set of falls called the Pillar Falls.  But the Shoshone Falls is the more famous of the twin falls.  This time of year, in the spring, the Snake River swells with snow melt, creating an awesome display at the waterfall.  Later in the year it dries up. The falls plunges 212 feet into the lower Snake River making it one of the tallest waterfalls in the US.  The 1,000-foot span of Shoshone Falls is actually a series of falls; Bridal Veil, Bride’s Maid, Bridal Falls, Two Graces, and Sentinel (the largest).

Snake River Canyon

 

Our first wild animal sighting - a Marmot!...

DAY 7& 8 – BOISE

It was an uneventful drive to Boise.  After 146 miles and 3 hours, we arrived at High Valley RV Park about 5 miles outside of Boise.  This park is a very nice park with almost 200 sites.  There is a pool and spa, a playground for kids and a very nice rec hall.  The book exchange is awesome.  Three tall, large book shelves full of books to exchange and part of one shelf is full of DVDs and VHS to check out for free.

 

 

 We are in Boise for a short stay.  We visited the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  These gardens are a must see if you ever visit Boise.  50 acres on a site that in 1973, served as the State Penitentiary’s farm and nursery.  The penitentiary walls boarder the garden.  Being spring time, the garden is in full bloom and it is beautiful!  Lots of bearded irises all over the grounds.

 

This one is interesting; variegated irises.  Saw an ad from Cottage Gardens in Petaluma.  They sell them there.  Going to get one when I get home.

Later in the day we did some shopping at Trader Joe’s (yeah!).  This will be our last chance for a month or so to shop TJ’s.  To find it we drove all over town and passed the state capital a few times trying to find TJ’s (it’s right in the heart of the city).  Boise is a large city.  It is the capital of Idaho.  There are lots to see and do here; zoo, aquarium, and several museums.

DAY 9 – GRANGEVILLE

After Boise we headed north through Idaho with an overnight stop at Grangeville before heading into Glacier National Park.  This was a nice drive as we climbed up to 5000 feet on Hwy 95.  We followed the Salmon River which was running full and rapid with snow runoff.  Lots of rapids.  Saw lots of kayaks.  No rafts though.  Probably too fast and dangerous for the bigger boats. This part of the drive was very beautiful. 

After 190 miles and 4 hours we arrived at Bear Den RV Park.  This is a smaller park with 35 sites.  It has a nice landscaped area.  Our site had a nice view across the valley.  We could see a golden meadow full of canola flowers.  The seeds from these flowers are pressed into canola oil.  We found a nice café in town to have lunch and on our way back to the trailer, the dark clouds opened up and we were treated with a thunder storm.  Quite the show. 

This pic was taken after coming back from lunch; when the thunderstorm hit us.

 Fields of canola flowers.

Tomorrow we drive into Glacier National Park for three days.