Idaho

Coeur d’Alene and Farragut State Park

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Heather Gebbia

I never realized how much beauty there is to see in Idaho. This must be one of America’s best kept secrets. It has all the beauty of the other surrounding states and national parks without the crowds. Maybe I shouldn’t be blogging about it, I’m sure the locals don’t want the secret to get out. 😉

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Farragut State Park

We stayed at Farragut State Park which was so beautiful. The cell signal there was pretty bad so we had to leave the park and go find other places to work during the week so that was a little frustrating.

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So much beautiful scenery at Farragut State Park!

More pictures from the state park:

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Coeur d’Alene is just 30 minutes south of the campground and we spent a lot of time working there that week. There is an abundance of hiking opportunities in Coeur d’Alene so after work we headed out on some hikes. Based on a friend’s recommendation we headed to Mineral Ridge which was amazing!

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Mineral Ridge

It’s a steep uphill climb but so worth it for this view!

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More pictures from the Mineral Ridge hike:

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Another hike we did in Coeur d’Alene was Tubbs Hill.

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Tubbs Hill

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There are numerous points along this hike where people were jumping off the rocks into the water. Our kids had lots of fun with that!

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These Florida boys said the water was freezing!

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Another view from Tubbs Hill

Another benefit of going to Coeur d’Alene during the week was the abundance of stores like Walmart, Kohls and even a Buffalo Wild Wings! It’s the little things you miss when you’re traveling around national parks and don’t see those types of stores/restaurants for a long time. 🙂

Sandpoint Beach was about 30 minutes north of our campground, another great place to visit (and work if you need a cell signal).

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Sandpoint Beach

Northern Idaho is so amazing and gorgeous, but let’s keep the secret to ourselves, okay? We don’t want it to get too crowded.

Next we headed to Canada where ironically we had a much better cell signal!

 

Categories: Idaho, Roadschooling | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Beautiful McCall Idaho

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Heather Gebbia

After leaving one of our least favorite campgrounds in Arco, Idaho we ended up at one of our new favorites, McCall RV Resort.

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Long, level site with lots of space between neighbors

We had really nice neighbors, in fact everyone at this campground was so nice, including all the people that worked there.

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Beautiful indoor pool and hot tub

Even Fat Cat loved it!

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Besides the fabulous RV park, McCall is such a great place to visit! There are so many wonderful recreational opportunities in the area.

My favorite thing we did was the hike to Louie Lake in Payette National Forest on the 4th of July. It wasn’t crowded at all and Louie Lake was breathtaking!

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Louie Lake

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Beautiful views on the way to Louie Lake

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Lots of wild flowers in bloom

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And some fun obstacles along the way

Another day we hiked to the Peninsula at Ponderosa State Park where we were rewarded with some spectacular views of Payette Lake.

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Hiking to the Peninsula at Ponderosa State Park

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Lots of wild flowers in bloom on the hike

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Taking a rest, it’s a steep climb up to the Peninsula

These views were worth the climb!

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Payette Lake

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Admiring the view

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More views of Payette Lake along the trail

We also went to Brundage Mountain to play some disc golf. I’m terrible at this game, but the kids love it.

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We had a blast in McCall Idaho, it is definitely on our very long list of “places to return to someday”.

 

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Craters of the Moon

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Heather Gebbia

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Craters of the Moon National Monument is in Idaho, but it literally looks like you have just landed on another planet. In fact, we learned by watching the park movie that NASA astronauts actually visited there to train for moon missions in 1969 and later spent time there researching missions to Mars. Is that cool or what?!

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Craters of the Moon

This park is very easy to visit as it’s not large and you could easily visit in a day. There is a 7 mile loop drive through the park with plenty of beautiful places to stop and admire the views. You also have the option to hike and explore some caves.

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Hiking up Inferno Cone

Our first stop was a short hike up the hill to see Inferno Cone.

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The next stop was Spatter Cones and Snow Cones.

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Spatter Cones

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Our favorite was exploring the caves. The first cave we explored was Indian Tunnel. That is an easy cave to explore if you didn’t bring flashlights. There is plenty of natural light in this cave.

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Staircase down into Indian Tunnel

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Indian Tunnel

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Lots of natural light coming into Indian Tunnel

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We went back another evening to explore the dark caves and remembered to bring flashlights.

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Some of these caves had some tight spots to squeeze through!

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Inside one of the caves there was a lot of ice, and somehow we got a good picture of some of it by shining a flashlight on it.

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I’m not gonna lie, it was creepy in those dark caves. The kids loved it and kept wanting to go further into them. I went along with them because I didn’t want them to get lost, but I have to admit I was a little nervous. Sometimes Chris stayed out of the caves just in case someone needed to call for help to come and rescue us. At least that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it. 😉

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Craters of the Moon is such a beautiful and unusual place to see and explore!

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We stayed at Craters of the Moon KOA in Arco, and I’m sorry to say it was one of the worst RV parks we’ve ever stayed at. I wouldn’t recommend it, however ironically we moved from there to one of the best parks we’ve ever stayed at. Stay tuned for that next.

 

Categories: Idaho, National Parks | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Ashton, Idaho and Mesa Falls

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

After about 2 months in Colorado it was time to move on and explore some other states.  We loved Colorado, but I honestly had no idea it would be so hot there.  That was quite a surprise, so I’m glad to be moving on to some cooler temperatures.

Our next stop was Ashton, Idaho.  We enjoyed a very relaxing week there and had some much needed downtime as we prepared for some busy upcoming weeks in Wyoming and Montana.  The only sightseeing we did in Ashton was visiting Upper and Lower Mesa Falls.  It was so beautiful and Jake said it was the coolest waterfall he has ever seen.  It was pretty awesome!

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Idaho is so pretty!  There are miles and miles of farmland and potato fields, as far as the eye can see.  And it was so colorful, but that’s hard to see in pictures.  We could also see the Teton mountain range off in the distance.

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Of course we had to buy some potatoes while we were in Idaho!

We stayed at Aspen Acres Golf Club and RV Park.  It was really nice and shaded which we loved, especially after our last site in Colorado that was so hot.  It was a little challenging getting into this site with all the trees, but it was worth it.  The weather here was beautiful and the shade was a real blessing!

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There was a nice playground at this campground too that the kids enjoyed.

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The people that own this campground also own the Five 11 Main Old Fashioned Soda Fountain & Pizzeria.  We had dinner there one night and it was so good!  The Darth Tater pizza was delicious.  It had a white sauce with Idaho baked potatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese and red onions. It was a like a baked potato pizza!  The kids loved the mac & cheese in a bread bowl.

Fat Cat found a new game there — chasing mice.  If this campground had a mice problem before we got there, they don’t anymore!

Since this RV park is also a golf course, Chris took the kids to play one day.

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We really enjoyed our time there and definitely want to go back to Idaho again someday and explore more of the state.  It was a great place to rest up before heading to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.

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