Exploring Western Idaho

Many of you know we have an ultimate goal of buying land in Idaho.  Either for just a nice getaway from the city (hehe, well, an Idaho kind of city) or to ultimately live.  Chris wants to open his own health practice someday in an under served area of Idaho, so we are taking that into consideration as well - would the area be somewhere he would like to practice someday?  Could I stand living there?  These are all long term plans - but you know me, I'm a planner!  So we are starting to do some exploring of different areas of Idaho to see what we think.  We've got to get it in now, in a couple weeks I won't feel comfortable being too far from the hospital (although I'm sure Chris is perfectly capable of delivering Bambino) and I am already not very comfortable sitting in a car for too long.  We'll be sidelined for a while once baby comes, but then we can start little exploring trips again. 


This past weekend we decided to head out to Cambridge to check it out.  For all my real estate friends, here is an example of stuff you can get in Cambridge:

10.66 Acres Bordering Payette National Forest!

This is a pricier one because of the hills, view and tree coverage - but we need our trees.  You can get cheaper land if it is flat and bare:

View 5.07 Acre Lot Priced to Sell!

And there are also cheaper areas where you can get much higher acreage.  That is why we are exploring.  We still want it to be close enough to things to do that we enjoy.

So - let's start our trip!

The scenery.

It almost seemed like we were driving through Delaware for a short distance.  There were corn fields and the land was really flat and you couldn't see (barely) any mountains.

It was looking like it was going to be a hazy day but as we drove we realized it was smoke coming from some fire - once we got past it the skies were much clearer.

Drove through Weiser - and Payette and other places too.....

Some mountains/hills started to appear again after a short break.  That looks more normal!

 

We stopped at a rest stop (some pregnant woman needed to empty her bladder, sheeesh) and took a look around.  In addition to a sign asking you to look out for certain plants (they take weed management VERY seriously in Idaho) there was also.......

The remnants of a wildfire.  It came RIGHT up to the fence for the rest stop and wrapped around it.  I'm guessing they must have setup structure protection to keep it away because it really did wrap around where the facilities were.

Not sure how old it was.  Interesting to see how it travels.  Yup, we're in wildfire country.

Can you see the reddish lines along the edge?  One goes through, right near the center of the picture and then to the left of it you can see more lines.  Those are the flame retardant the planes drop.  You can't tell from these pictures, but the stuff is obviously very effective. 

Unfortunately Cambridge is having it's own fire this weekend.  As of last night it said they were doing evacuations, but I haven't seen any updates about it today, so I'm not sure how that is going.  We also saw a bunch of smoke start up last night and I guess there is/was a Lucky Peak (the name of that little beach near the house)/Black's Creek fire.  That is a good distance away, but we still get to see lots of smoke from it.

Speaking of fires and planes - those planes have been VERY busy today.  We've been seeing them fly back and forth from the airport all day and hearing them overhead.  The National Interagency Fire Center is based out of Boise and there is also a Firehawk Helicopter location at the airport, right by the highway.  Once fire season started up we started to see the helicopters taking off regularly and the huge planes take off from there too - obviously following VERY different flight patterns/rules than the commercial planes - they cut RIGHT over the highway - really close up views.  Did I mention Little Lady LOVES helicopters and planes?  She can't get enough!  Anyways, I think the planes today have been going to the Stanley fire, which they can't seem to get a handle on yet - I'm serious when I say the planes have been going back and forth non stop.

Anyways - back to our road trip.  I'll just have to do a wildfire post - we had one at Micron the other week (now THAT is right by the house) and got some really good pictures!  Little Lady got to see lots of helicopters dumping water!

Cambridge, Idaho: Population 360.  I thought I took some pictures of "Downtown" but I can't find them.  They might be on Chris' phone.  Yeah - all these pictures are being taken on our phones.  I swear the quality is better than our point and shoots.  We've talked about a nice DSLR but I hate to spend money.  Any ideas on a good place to find a used one?

The scenery.  The roads were actually pretty twisty.  There was a stream on the left hand side and lots of "growth" on that side.  It was interesting because it was kind of downhill from the road and a rather thin strip of land but lots of cows were apparently grazing down there - amongst the underbrush - hidden away!  Winding along - twists and turns - and then Little Lady threw up.  So a quick pull over and lots of baby wipes and one of the extra outfits I always pack for her was pulled out.  We always have old beach towels sitting in the back so we were able to cover her seat with that.  Poor thing :-(  I don't think she has actually ever thrown up in the car before.  Yeah, we've had spit up when she was really little, but that would just be on a strap and her clothes - this was a first for her.  See - so many new experiences in Idaho!

We stopped at a little convenience store/restaurant/gas stop to tidy up, stretch, use the bathrooms and refuel our stomachs and tank - and give Little Lady some time to regroup and for us to determine if it was car sickness or if she was really getting sick.  She rebounded pretty quickly and we decided it must have been the twisty roads in combination with reading her books and stuff.  We decided we could drive further a little bit more.  Thankfully she did great on the way back along the twisty roads.  I'm sure it helped that she was asleep for most of them.

Check that out!  Let's take a closer look.

I guess it is officially called Woodhead Park.  It is the Brownlee reservoir, then the Brownlee Dam.

We headed down to the water for a closer look and another break from being in the car. Oh, and by the way, that is Oregon on the other side!

Huge.  Lots of boats, lots of people camping.  A nice combo - you can basically put your boat in the water and then "anchor" it right by your camping spot for the weekend.

The water was actually pretty warm!  Pleasant, but not too warm on a hot day.

Since the ground was uneven and made falling over easy and likely, Chris got to do the water play duties.  He was happy to do it though - as soon as I gave him my flip flops to wear!  We didn't have a suit for Little Lady, but hey - do kids really need one?

This was originally a simple request for her to look at me while I took a picture of her - then a request for her to look in my general direction - then we just told her to look at the sky in hopes she wouldn't be looking at the ground.  The result?  Vogue photo shoot.



She seemed to enjoy throwing rocks the most.  She tried picking up some 30 pounders but eventually had to settle for some smaller ones.

I told Chris to make a fun pose - he tried, and then started to actually fall.  So, yup, he is actually falling over in this picture.

How cool is it that we have all these awesome, neat little places so close to us?  I love that she is growing up getting to see and play in all of this.  She is really getting to enjoy nature.  People out here don't let it go to waste - there was even a group of sixty something year olds frolicking in the water right by us.  Yes, frolicking. :-)

This (not so)little guy will also get to experience it all.  So exciting - looking forward to so much family fun.  And yes - I know - H.U.G.E.

We wrapped up our playing and decided to head a bit further to make the hop into Oregon.

Parts of the dam.

Now doesn't that look like one heck of a water slide?  It would be neat to see those open - as long as it was planned - and we were in a safe viewing location....

Welcome to Oregon!

That sign says "Bighorn Sheep Crossing" - not something you see every day! Well, I guess if you lived right there you might.  You know what i mean.

Realized she seemed rather quiet. looked back and she was out.  Her snack was sitting in her hand and everything.  Playing in the water is always exhausting.

The view in Oregon.

"When flood-alert siren sounds, evacuate immediately" - uhhhh, yeah, you better believe it!

Back in Idaho!

It was an enjoyable excursion - although my "sit bones" were pretty sore by the end of the day and I needed to lay down a bit.  My feet actually had a little swelling finally, but it went right away when I laid down.  There are certainly neat things right by Cambridge.  Our goal had been to check out Hell's Canyon.  I guess we were right at the entrance when we turned around - but you have to go a bit further to really get in there and we were done for the day.  Guess we'll just have to go back! ;-)