Idaho

Formally known as, “not California,” this Famous Potato State did not disappoint. When I think of the West Coast, I am not gonna lie, Idaho is never the state that comes to mind. Cali, Washington, and Oregon are often everyone’s “idea” of the West Coast. So poor little Idaho just kind of sinks into the background.

Well, hopefully through this post, I can shed a little light on what a wonderful state Idaho really is. Honestly, it should be known for so much more than it’s potatoes.

Our first stop in Idaho, was Boise. A lot of our friends have visited or preformed in Boise, and we were anxious to see what the hype was all about. To our pleaseant surprise Boise is packed with things to do and see.

We decided to start at the Freak Alley Gallery, which is a collaboration of outdoor murals. This art gallery is quite a few blocks long, with mural upon mural upon mural. It’s really incredible and well worth the little walk.

This gallery was started back in 2002, and now has grown into an ever changing display of local talent. The gallery features over 200 artists, and allegedly there are new paintings ever time you visit.

There are very realistic paintings, abstract murals, play on words, and even spin offs of well known T.V. shows. Make sure if your passing through you take your time and take in all the various characters that come to life throughout this alley.

Most of the painting are on a brick canvas, which I think adds to the character of the various pieces. The life like characters and animals really stood out to me, like the wolf posted below. There really is something here for everyone!

The alley is located between N 9th and N 8th street, on the block of W Idaho St. so be sure to check it out. Also a fun tidbit is the Freak Alley Gallery is also free and open 24/7.

We checked it out at night which really added to the whole experience. Being the only ones there, we had plenty of time to mosey through without wrecking anyone’s selfies! 🙂

After getting our art fill, we began to wander the streets and do a bit of window shopping. There are a lot of cool little stores in downtown Boise, so it’s really fun to just walk around and take everything in.

We found a neat little mall that had a lot of indoor walkways. There was a balcony at the top of the shopping center, and walkway bridges to cross the street without going back out into the cold.

In the middle of the downtown center, there was a giant Christmas tree and a lot of unique light patterns playing off the buildings. I was really happy we visited during Christmas time because everything was very festive. We enjoyed all the trees wrapped in lights and the Christmas music that played throughout the streets.

There are lots of little parks and modern art as you wander throughout downtown. We passed a lot of interactive pieces. Some even displayed how downtown Boise looked back in the early 1900’s. A lot of the buildings were made fully of glass. Many were filled with bright colorful lights indoors, to make the entire building appear red or purple (for example). It was much more artsy than we expected, and we even found this awesome little snowman outside a fancy Mexican Restaurant.

Although the Mexican food smelled DELICIOUS, we had our minds set on one thing: Potatoes. So naturally we looked up the best potatoes in town. Our searching lead us to the Westside Drive In.

The Westside Drive In is basically just a retro Sonic with better food. We were drawn in by the vintage vibe and the fun neon lights. And of course the potato hype!

After seeing the advertisements, we could not resist ordering the Ice Cream Potato. Honestly it was quite good. They take the ice cream and coat the entire outside in coco powder to give it the potato appearance. Then they load it up with whipped cream that gives it the appearance sour cream. Behold the fully loaded Ice Cream Potato. Yummy!

After spending a full night exploring Idaho, we decided to call it a night and get some rest for the morning. Bright and early we continued our journey East. We drove for a couple of hours, through some really beautiful land and through a few mountain ranges.

We drove through Twin Falls, and then finally hit our destination: Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve. Which is now one of our favorite National Parks.

Craters of the Mood National Monument and Preserve is normally a collection of lava flows, dried igneous rock formations, craters, and strange rock formations creating a Mars-like mountain range.

Since we were visiting in the Winter, we had a unique oppertunity. With about 10 inches of snow, the rock formations were completely covered and created a Winter Wonderland.

This time of year instead of offering tours, the Visitors Center gives out snowshoes. With a recommended donation of $5 the snowshoes are yours till dark!

Being a week day, and maybe due to the cold, we had the whole park to ourselves! It was beautiful. There are little paths already trudged into the snow, but with your snowshoes you can venture just about anywhere.

We decided to hike the North Crater and out to the Lava Flow Fields. Thankfully, our snowshoes had good grip to get up some of those steep parts of the mountain. With the inches of snow, there would have been no chance that we would have made it that far, (without our feet being drenched and snow up to our knees, which nobody wants!) without those life saving snowshoes. Do yourself the favor and grab those snowshoes on the way in. Trust me, you will be grateful! You’ll want to donate more than 5 bucks.

It was so beautiful hiking out to the middle of nowhere, and being surrounded by silence and nature. Daniel and I had a lot of reflection time out there in the middle of Narnia. The snow just stretched for miles and miles, without the noise pollution of neighboring cities. It is a truly tranquil and humbling experience.

At first, I was a bit disappointed about the snow because we wouldn’t be able to see all the rock formations. Honestly though, it was so beautiful, if we were to visit again I would push to do it in the winter! There’s no crowds and the view is incredible covered in all the glistening snow. If we were to do it all over again, I would not change a thing.

After trudging around for a few hours, we decided to head back towards our car. To our surprise getting back was easy and QUICK! We leaned forward and used the metal rim of our snowshoes almost like skis, and slid most of the way down the mountain. It took us about an hour to hike to the top and 12 mins to come down! Hello, snow surfing.

Once we arrived back at our parking lot, we shook off our icy boots and realized how cold we really were. Thankfully, the stomping through the snow had kept our bodies really warm. But once we stopped moving, we were FREEZING! We booked it to the shelter of our car to thaw out of toes and melt Daniel’s ice beard.

Once we de-thawed a bit, we decided the perfect ending to our day of hiking and Winter Wonder would be a nice bowl of hot soup! So that is exactly what we did. With our handy dandy pot and boiler, we whipped up some hot chili and wild rice soup! It is was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

With our water refilled from the Visitors Center, and our stomach full of warm soup, we kissed Craters of the Moon goodbye. From there, we drove off into the sunset: Utah bound! Salt Lake City, here we come!

Thanks for reading the blog this week. Hope y’all are staying warm! God Bless,

McKayla