Inching toward Idaho

We haven't posted in a while, and several people have texted me to ask where the heck are we and what are we doing?! Well, the truth is that we set aside our house search for a time so that we could go see some friends in Boise, Idaho. It took us a while to get to Idaho, as we typically stay put during the workweek so Craig can focus on work. Here is a recap of our time inching through the rest of South Dakota, into Montana, and then finally to Idaho.

We enjoyed our time in Presho, SD, but we weren’t thrilled with the scenery there. Eastern South Dakota is not all that appealing to us. However, as you drive into the western part of the state, you see moguls of green, rolling hills, the Badlands, and the black hills. Gone are the flat fields of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa from the first part of our journey, and the terrain gives way to more foothills and mountains. We were surprised that some parts still looked green rather than brown and dry, as we had expected. Nevertheless, the greenery was lush in Illinois and Iowa and a bit more matte in South Dakota and the first part of Montana.

We enjoyed a stop for breakfast in Spearfish, SD, and saw a tiny bit of that town, which was very cute. We will have to go back sometime! (We casually looked online at properties in that area. However, only one looked interesting; and, by the time we got to Montana, it was already under contract.) 

I was excited to get to Montana, as I had never been. I dreamed of the big sky and wide-open, cattle ranch atmosphere. However, once again, the eastern part of the state was not as nice as the western part. Unfortunately, the place we stopped for the week was in the eastern side – Mountain Range RV park in Columbus, MT. It suited our needs, but the scenery was just “meh.” I recorded a video to show you a bit of it. I'll link to that below.

As we drove further west and stopped in Bozeman, my Montana expectations were met. Beautiful scenery, big sky, bigger mountains, and wide-open valleys. You could just picture yourself riding horseback for days from one side of the massive valley to the other with a huge mountain range in the background. We hung out near an in-town park (Rose Park), and I walked the dogs around while Craig worked. Bozeman seems to have a lot of nice parks, and this one has a frisbee-golf course (another thing we see a lot of lately). We kept seeing prairie dogs everywhere, and our non-prairie dogs went crazy over smelling all the holes and tunnels! I also kept noticing a fragrance that made me think of “new house construction” as I walked around. I wondered if it was some sort of timber/lumber that I was smelling everywhere. However, I later realized it was probably the abundant sage brush that grows all around these parts and has a sweet, woodsy smell. (You'll see plenty of sage brush in my second video linked below.)

As we drove south out of Bozeman, through a corner of Yellowstone, and then down toward Idaho, we enjoyed the views of the Gallatin River rushing through the mountain valley. We saw plenty of fly fisherman and river rafters in the rapids. The late sun was shimmering on the water by the time we drove through, and the tall pines leaned toward the river on either side. Once again, we were pleased to see greenery, but the grasses here seemed almost velvety, and they oozed in between and under the forest-green pines on the mountains. Randomly, yellow and red outcroppings of rocks and shrubs emerged from the mountains, and beautiful houses appeared nestled on the hilltops, making us wonder how those people got so lucky to get those properties! In the cattle fields, we saw humongous sprinkler systems working hard to keep the grass green. 

As mentioned, we're spending the next week visiting old friends from our Air Force days in Boise, Idaho. The night before driving to their place, we spent the night at a rest area near Blackfoot, ID. This rest area had a nice little trail called, “Hell’s Half Acre Trail.” I know the name doesn’t sound that appealing, but it’s pretty cool because it’s on a lava field. So, you could see lava rock and lava “ropes” in the terrain, plus there were various cracks and crevasses where the lava had settled and cooled, creating tubes and tunnels under the ground. It was similar to (but not nearly on the same scale as) what we saw when we were stationed in Hawaii. I did a little walking video with the dogs that I'll link to below. 

We'll update you again after our week in Boise. That's when we'll get refocused on our house search again. We hope you all have a great week!

Videos:

• Mountain Range RV Park - Columbus, MT
• Hike on Hell's Half Acre Trail in Blackfoot, ID