Idaho Day 4

Day 4 - July 2nd.   This day we left Boise and headed to Twin Falls.  It was about 2 1/2 hours to the east of Boise, and down in the south of Idaho.  (we planned to trek across the bottom of the entire state).

On the way out of town, we stopped at an Oregon Trail point.  There are still a lot of places the trail is visible in Idaho.  Here at this stop, they have preserved some of the tracks the wagons made when they crossed this land.

All three kids died of Dysentery.  It was sad

On the way to the house in Twin Falls, we stopped at the Bruneau Sand Dunes.  The kids loved this place.  They will tell you it was their favorite part of the whole trip.  It s quite amazing to see these sand dunes just in the middle of mountains.  And they were large.  We didn't climb the largest one - with Arlington having a broken knee, it really wasn't in the cards.  But we did climb the smaller one - which was still really, really high.

 Walking toward the dunes

 Aunt Betty and I became fascinated with the flowers that would grow - almost all of them yellow - in the oddest places.  Here is one growing in the sand

 The climb.

 Resting at the top

 Finley sliding down the mountain

 View around the dunes

 My favorite two pictures I took

 Arlington tried boarding down the sand

 Cainan sledding down the hill

 The bigger dunes in the distance

 Sitting at the top - wee little cars down there

 Climbing was not her favorite

 Mat decided to try boarding on the sand

 Resting in the warm sand

 Rolling down the sand

 Finley tried boarding

The best part was sliding down it on a sled.  Kids loved that.  Downside - walking it back to the top because walking in sand is tougher than it looks.  In the end, they rolled down the sand dunes (and we removed sand from their clothes and shoes for two days after this).  The view from the top was gorgeous.

We then headed to Castle Rocks State Park.  IT was full of different shaped rock formations.  What the pioneers must have thought when they came across these on their trek to the west.  They were everywhere.  The kids had a great time climbing around them and even up a few.

 There were a lot of faded hydroglyphics on the walls of the rocks

 A lot of the travelers over these lands years ago wrote on the rocks

 We saw a few rock climbers on the bigger boulders

 Cactus roses

 This one was called Window Rock

 Standing on the edge of some pretty cool boulders

 Mat filling out water bottles up with natural spring water.  It was yummy

We got some dinner at a really neat diner near Castle Rocks, and then headed to the house in Twin Falls, which was just as nice as our house in Boise.  Airbnb really is a great way to travel.