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Published: July 20th 2017
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the Idaho state capital Mileage 301.2
We got up and ate our breakfast then came back to the room to book hotels for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and finish up the blog. Then we were off. We had googled to try to find a welcome center for Idaho since we were just over the border and needed maps (can’t use google maps if you don’t have internet and you don’t have your destination in before you lose internet). Google last night didn’t find anything. Of course we left the hotel, drove maybe 2-3 miles and there it was. Oh, well, we bought maps last night. The speed limit on I 84 is 80 mph. Cool. We passed a truck pulling a triple trailer. That was a first for me.
Further down the road we decided to take a detour and head for Boise so that we could get a picture of the capital. We are trying to see the capital building for all the states we go into. We then back tracked to Marsing where we joined the highway along the Snake River. The river was not named after snakes but instead it was named by a misunderstanding. The Indians made an S
symbol for the explorers to represent the salmon coming up stream, but they thought it meant snakes. As we drive down the scenic highway beside the river (which you really couldn’t see much of) there wasn’t much to see but flat farm land and sand. Suddenly there is a BANG … a dump truck going in the opposite direction throws up a rock. Sure enough, it hits the wind shield and crack – about 1 inch long. We first call USAA but get disconnected because of lack of cell service. I decide to call National next. Good thing, because I used my business account which contains waiver for the collision so it’s covered. So they said as long as we could still drive the van, keep it.. The gravel covered road stopped after another mile or 2 and all was well after that. We were driving on the open range and saw signs for it often. We also saw signs like “Jumbo’s Beer, Bait and Bullets”. Ha.
Our first stop was the Bruneau Dunes State Park. When we were driving up to it, a lot of the hills and land were black. I wondered if it was a controlled
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Pam in a horseless carriage burn or something. As we drove into the park, we spotted a visitors center and I jumped out to see if there were any maps of the park. As I walked inside I heard the ranger telling the couple inside about the fire. Seems it happened last week and lightning struck about 10 miles away, but with the wind, the cinders caught the ground cover on fire and the wind kept it going. In total, 40,000 acres burnt and 3,000 of those were inside the dune park. The ranger said it was the non-native grass that burns so much and it has taken over the area. I am sure it was scary for the folks living around there as the fire went right up to their houses… The tracks thru the hills just before the park were where the firemen drove up to put out flame retardant to stop the fire.
I came out and told the sisters the story. We then drove into the park to see all the dunes. We got out a few times, but by now it was 100 and me and my sandals - the SAND IS HOT!!!! Back to the visitor center where
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The early road as we were driving. we were going to picnic, but even in the shade it was hot, so we ate in the car with the AC on. Afterwards we went back into the center and it turns out there is a shop. They had fossils…. We all bought something. I bought a rock with a fish fossil in it and an amethyst ball on a stand.
Back to the scenic highway where we tried to find the Thousand Springs falls. My GPS on the phone took us to the Malad River Canyon which was way cool, but it wasn’t the Thousand Springs Fall. On the way the GPS took us thru corn fields, what looked like someone’s yards, dirt roads… Susan and Pam kept telling me I was getting them lost, but we did find the canyon and they did have a waterfall. Pam was able to get the “real” falls on her GPS and off we went in search of them next. Sure enough, we found them. The Thousands Springs Falls are falls that come out of the side of the mountain. You see the mesas are higher than the water table and the water comes out the middle of the rock
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the crack in the windshield face. So this isn’t a river that is feeding the falls.
After this we headed to Twin Falls for the night and looked for the Perrine Couleer Waterfall. We could see it from the bridge, but the road down the mountain didn’t allow us to see it from a better view. We decided to check into the hotel, change and eat before attempting to go back to the overlook on the other side of the bridge. At dinner we had the best butter, it was huckleberry. We had 2 of the butters at dinner and ordered some of the bread and butter to go. We will put it in the cooler and eat them for lunch tomorrow. Boy was it good. I also had huckleberry dressing on my salad. I like huckleberry. After dinner, we really wanted to see the Shoshone Falls...the Niagara of the West. Oh my. I’ve seen Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls and now Shoshone Falls. All I need to see now is Iguazu Falls in South America. The Shoshone Falls were amazing. I loved the layers of falls within the falls, and to top it off, we were there during sunset. Actually we got to see
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driving along the Snake river four sunsets (0 sun rises). We saw the first one at the lower viewing area for the falls, then we drove up some to the next viewing area and got to see another sunset. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. I think I got some good pictures.. I do have a couple videos of the falls but can't post them here. I'll have to show you one day.
Back to the hotel to wash clothes, write blog,….
Tonight’s hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn and yes, we used points.
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entrancedmagnatism
colin mullen
so relaxing and calming
this is like a place near us. think its call indians head, not to sure. but on a grander scale.