Boise, Chores, and a Detour into the Sawtooth Range

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Tuesday we had a date for an oil change at the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Boise, so Sunday, we reluctantly left the sunshine, dry air, and rugged beauty of Craters of the Moon. Traveling west and south to the Snake River plain, we hopped on the interstate, (why are these people driving so fast?!), and landed for the night at Bruneau Dunes State Park. They had hook-ups, a dump, shower and almost empty campground. We checked out the visitor center and learned that the nearby 500-foot tall sand dunes were originally from an oxbow in the old Snake River valley, and remain constant instead of shifting, due to prevailing winds from two directions keeping them in place. It was 95 degrees, so we decided not to hike the dunes, and enjoyed the electric hook-up that powered our RV air conditioner.

Crossing the Snake River

Hay bales stacked for winter

Irrigated crops in the Snake River floodplain

The stellate dunes at Bruneau Dunes State Park - The tallest dunes in the US

Rental Snowboards for "duneboarding" - Imagine snowboarding in slow motion!

Monday was chore day. We located a laundromat in Boise, then found the downtown Trader Joe's. The jovial cashier gave us good recommendations for a brewpub, so we managed to park on a downtown street and went to the 10 Barrel Brewery. Good brew, and good food! We checked out a few blocks of the downtown. Boise is the capitol of Idaho, and a really nice, clean city with lots of shops, cafes, and businesses. We were impressed by the friendliness of the people and the upscale downtown. Lots of youthful bike riders, many commuting, and even polite skateboarders and scooter riders commuting home!

Smiling because the laundry is almost done

State Capitol Building

Downtown Capitol neighborhood

Crosswalk for wheeled commuters

Street art

The other side!

We reluctantly drove out to the interstate and pulled into a tight spot in an RV park right along the interstate. Noisy night, but we ran the ac for part of it anyway. The next morning we checked into the Mercedes-Benz dealer for the oil change. We had one in Bellingham, Washington before we went to Alaska, but have already put over 11,000 miles more on the rig. Since we started traveling in November 2012 we have put over 50,000 miles on her! Of course, there were a few more repairs that needed to be done. The turbo hose we needed had to be sent from New Jersey, so we scheduled to come back on Thursday. Where to go for two nights? Our service manager and the rest of the staff weighed in with suggestions, and it was unanimous. We must go up into the Sawtooth Mountains to Redfish Lake. So at almost 3 pm, off we went back east on the interstate, exited at Mountain Home and finally reached the route north to Sun Valley/Ketchum.

Heading up the Big Wood valley past Ketchum and Sun Valley

Recent fire

We crawled through the resort towns and past the turn to Sun Valley. Everything was very upscale and ski-resorty. Once we were 10 miles north of Ketchum we pulled into a small forest service campground and quit for the night at 6:30 pm. Still a long drive and a high pass with a twisty road before we would reach Redfish Lake. The campground was almost empty and sat on the Big Wood River, Ernest Hemingway's favorite fishing river, in a grove of quaking aspen trees just beginning to turn yellow. We fixed dinner and prepared for a cold night at over 6,000'.

Our camp along the Big Wood River

Wednesday we continued the drive to Redfish Lake and circled back through the Sawtooth Range and back towards Boise. Redfish was very pretty. The water was crystal clear. We were impressed with the nicely done forest service campground. An earlier start would have allowed us to stay the night before, but we enjoyed our quiet aspen grove. We toured the visitor center, took a short stroll along the lake front, and continued up the Salmon River valley, known as the “River of No Return”, and started back towards Boise from Stanley, Idaho. The drive back to Boise took us over high mountain passes and through big alpine prairies. There were a lot of burned over areas. This area still seems to be in drought.

Redfish Lake near the USFS Visitors Center

Extremely clear water and granite pebble beach

Looking across Redfish Lake at the Sawtooth Range

We decided to stay in a campground at Lucky Peak Reservoir, just outside of Boise. Hitting there at rush hour, we also hit a construction zone where fresh pavement had been put down. The flagman would not let us turn into the only entrance into the reservoir, and said that it might be open in another half hour. The long line of traffic stopped on both sides helped us to decide that even if we came back, the traffic the next morning would probably be tied up and we didn't want to be late for our Thursday appointment back at Mercedes-Benz. Back we hopped on the interstate while I frantically searched the internet for a place to stay. After driving through more traffic, we found a nice private park in the city along the Boise River. Wow! More hook-ups and showers! Time for more boondocking before we get spoiled.

The Salmon River

The back side of the Sawtooth Range

Basalt caprock over soft ryolite deposits near Idaho City. Leaves starting to change

Lucky Peak Reservoir

This morning we rolled back into the MB dealer and are waiting for the work to finish. Both days here we walked over to a hole-in-the-wall for all day breakfasts for lunch. The Chef Hut is buried in an industrial park, is rather funkily decorated, but serves really good food. Greg thinks he's in breakfast heaven in Boise with two “breakfast” lunches this week! His favorite. After we leave we are heading for Hell's Canyon along the Idaho-Oregon border for some waterfront boondocking. We are ready to get out of the city and back into Oregon. Still have a few sights to see there that we missed the first time through!

Stealth restaurant advertising - invisible from 50 feet away!

You can get anything you want, especially if it is breakfast!