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September 6-9, 2019 Southwestern Idaho Part 1
September 6-9, 2019
Southwestern Idaho
PART 1
Less than two months after my purchase of my 2018 4Runner, my wife and I decided to spend a long weekend in southwestern Idaho. We periodically go that way to Nampa and Boise for a nice getaway and shopping, and it’s not terribly far. Nampa is about 17 miles west of Boise. We have friends who also live in the area.
This was to be our first trip with the 4Runner, as well as see how the dogs would act riding along in our new SUV. Prior to the purchase of the new Toyota, we had a 2002 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4x4 pickup, which had considerably less room in the extended cab; as that generation of Tacoma was nearly a foot narrower than the 5th generation 4Runner. When we had one small dog, it was fine for long trips; but now we had two, neither was content to stay on the floor or behind the seat, and both would always complete to sit in my wife’s lap in the Tacoma, which was uncomfortable for her and sometimes painful.
On a Friday morning just after a dawn thunderstorm, we quickly loaded a weekend’s worth of needs and tossed the plush beds of our two small dogs in the back seat of the 4Runner and took off northward; leaving about 7:00 AM. With rain and cool weather much of the way, air conditioning was seldom necessary. Our dogs seemed content to stay in the back seat in their beds and remained quiet throughout.
Northbound, just north of Blue Mountain Summit, about a half hour inside Oregon. In another half hour we will cross time zones into Mountain Standard Time, or an hour ahead of our home time.
Jordan Valley, Oregon, just less than three hours north of Winnemucca. Though quite small, it is the largest town between my home and Nampa. Just ahead and behind the oncoming vehicle with its headlights on, the highway will make a 90 turn to the left. The Idaho border is about a mile away directly ahead of us, but the highway will turn to parallel and flirt with the border on its northward run for about twenty more miles before crossing.
A stop at the park to stretch our legs and those of our dogs. And a convenient place to unload all that coffee I had been drinking.
About a decade ago, this scene was filled with juniper trees, but massive wildfires have since removed them all.
We arrived in Nampa before noon local time, or less than four hours from home. In town there is a great doggy day care center that we often patronize when we are in the area. Their large staff and huge building make for great fun for our dogs, plus they get worn out and remain quiet in the evening and night time hours at the motel. We dropped them off and headed for nearby Boise.
Downtown Boise, the state capitol is seen ahead. Though I’m not comfortable driving in the city, I don’t mind Boise. The city is very shady (it’s nickname is “the city of trees”) and pretty laid back. Lots of pedestrian and bicycle traffic and fewer cars.
We periodically stop at the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, in the Basque Block a couple blocks from the capitol building, as my wife is of Basque descent. The museum is small but packed with much of interest, with rotating displays. We spent time downtown, then returned to Nampa, had a steak dinner at Sizzler, then picked up the dogs and checked into our motel.
On Saturday, our activities were confined to downtown Boise and indoors. Our plans for scenic travel were for Sunday.
Our primary scenic drive that we wished to do was to head southeast of Nampa into the heavily forested Owyhee Mountains to the semi ghost town of Silver City. I had spent two days and a night there in 2001 and wished to return to the substantially sized, rustic and scenic historic town in the mountains amid the pines and aspens. But we awoke to rainy skies and the thought of the 20-something mile uphill slog in the mud over curves and switchbacks that might have considerable holiday weekend traffic heading homeward didn’t seem like a good thing to do; plus in the rain we couldn’t walk about freely and enjoy the ambience. So we resorted to Plan B.
Until recently, Winnemucca received four TV channels out of Boise on over the air television, and I’d often seen items of interest on them concerning the McCall area northwest of Boise. So we set our sights on a drive north over Idaho state highway 55 and along the Payette River. It rained with various intensity much of the way. We didn’t have any itinerary, except a leisurely drive and plans to meet for dinner with our friends at 6:00 PM.
Our Plan B travels. Silver City, our originally planned Plan A, is circled.
The Payette River between Horseshoe Bend and Banks. Note the railroad track across the river, which we will be following for much of the way to McCall.
The Payette River near Smiths Ferry.
A historic site along the Payette near Alpha, where the river was dammed to trap logs until spring, when the dam was broken open to release logs downstream to sawmills. This method was dangerous and unproductive. In 1912, a railroad was built to the timber region. The railroad is still in place, but appears its better days have passed.
Scenic Long Valley, focusing eastward. Our byway stayed within Long Valley for the remainder of the way to McCall, dotted with several small communities.
The small town of Cascade. The railroad used to run to McCall, but is now terminated just north of this point.
At the small town of Donnelly, we spotted a Subway sandwich shop, so picked up a light lunch. We continued north in hopes of finding a nice spot to eat along Payette Lake at McCall. As we entered McCall, we found a Ridley’s supermarket (Winnemucca has a Ridley’s as well) and picked up something for dessert.
At McCall, on the south shore of Payette Lake, we found a nice Rotary Club sponsored lakeside rest area with clean restrooms, as well as tables and chairs along the water’s edge. Rain had tapered to scattered showers, so after eating our lunches in the 4Runner, we walked about and took in the views.
END OF PART 1
(Photo limit per post)
September 6-9, 2019
Southwestern Idaho
PART 1
Less than two months after my purchase of my 2018 4Runner, my wife and I decided to spend a long weekend in southwestern Idaho. We periodically go that way to Nampa and Boise for a nice getaway and shopping, and it’s not terribly far. Nampa is about 17 miles west of Boise. We have friends who also live in the area.
This was to be our first trip with the 4Runner, as well as see how the dogs would act riding along in our new SUV. Prior to the purchase of the new Toyota, we had a 2002 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4x4 pickup, which had considerably less room in the extended cab; as that generation of Tacoma was nearly a foot narrower than the 5th generation 4Runner. When we had one small dog, it was fine for long trips; but now we had two, neither was content to stay on the floor or behind the seat, and both would always complete to sit in my wife’s lap in the Tacoma, which was uncomfortable for her and sometimes painful.
On a Friday morning just after a dawn thunderstorm, we quickly loaded a weekend’s worth of needs and tossed the plush beds of our two small dogs in the back seat of the 4Runner and took off northward; leaving about 7:00 AM. With rain and cool weather much of the way, air conditioning was seldom necessary. Our dogs seemed content to stay in the back seat in their beds and remained quiet throughout.
Northbound, just north of Blue Mountain Summit, about a half hour inside Oregon. In another half hour we will cross time zones into Mountain Standard Time, or an hour ahead of our home time.
Jordan Valley, Oregon, just less than three hours north of Winnemucca. Though quite small, it is the largest town between my home and Nampa. Just ahead and behind the oncoming vehicle with its headlights on, the highway will make a 90 turn to the left. The Idaho border is about a mile away directly ahead of us, but the highway will turn to parallel and flirt with the border on its northward run for about twenty more miles before crossing.
A stop at the park to stretch our legs and those of our dogs. And a convenient place to unload all that coffee I had been drinking.
About a decade ago, this scene was filled with juniper trees, but massive wildfires have since removed them all.
We arrived in Nampa before noon local time, or less than four hours from home. In town there is a great doggy day care center that we often patronize when we are in the area. Their large staff and huge building make for great fun for our dogs, plus they get worn out and remain quiet in the evening and night time hours at the motel. We dropped them off and headed for nearby Boise.
Downtown Boise, the state capitol is seen ahead. Though I’m not comfortable driving in the city, I don’t mind Boise. The city is very shady (it’s nickname is “the city of trees”) and pretty laid back. Lots of pedestrian and bicycle traffic and fewer cars.
We periodically stop at the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, in the Basque Block a couple blocks from the capitol building, as my wife is of Basque descent. The museum is small but packed with much of interest, with rotating displays. We spent time downtown, then returned to Nampa, had a steak dinner at Sizzler, then picked up the dogs and checked into our motel.
On Saturday, our activities were confined to downtown Boise and indoors. Our plans for scenic travel were for Sunday.
Our primary scenic drive that we wished to do was to head southeast of Nampa into the heavily forested Owyhee Mountains to the semi ghost town of Silver City. I had spent two days and a night there in 2001 and wished to return to the substantially sized, rustic and scenic historic town in the mountains amid the pines and aspens. But we awoke to rainy skies and the thought of the 20-something mile uphill slog in the mud over curves and switchbacks that might have considerable holiday weekend traffic heading homeward didn’t seem like a good thing to do; plus in the rain we couldn’t walk about freely and enjoy the ambience. So we resorted to Plan B.
Until recently, Winnemucca received four TV channels out of Boise on over the air television, and I’d often seen items of interest on them concerning the McCall area northwest of Boise. So we set our sights on a drive north over Idaho state highway 55 and along the Payette River. It rained with various intensity much of the way. We didn’t have any itinerary, except a leisurely drive and plans to meet for dinner with our friends at 6:00 PM.
Our Plan B travels. Silver City, our originally planned Plan A, is circled.
The Payette River between Horseshoe Bend and Banks. Note the railroad track across the river, which we will be following for much of the way to McCall.
The Payette River near Smiths Ferry.
A historic site along the Payette near Alpha, where the river was dammed to trap logs until spring, when the dam was broken open to release logs downstream to sawmills. This method was dangerous and unproductive. In 1912, a railroad was built to the timber region. The railroad is still in place, but appears its better days have passed.
Scenic Long Valley, focusing eastward. Our byway stayed within Long Valley for the remainder of the way to McCall, dotted with several small communities.
The small town of Cascade. The railroad used to run to McCall, but is now terminated just north of this point.
At the small town of Donnelly, we spotted a Subway sandwich shop, so picked up a light lunch. We continued north in hopes of finding a nice spot to eat along Payette Lake at McCall. As we entered McCall, we found a Ridley’s supermarket (Winnemucca has a Ridley’s as well) and picked up something for dessert.
At McCall, on the south shore of Payette Lake, we found a nice Rotary Club sponsored lakeside rest area with clean restrooms, as well as tables and chairs along the water’s edge. Rain had tapered to scattered showers, so after eating our lunches in the 4Runner, we walked about and took in the views.
END OF PART 1
(Photo limit per post)
