Dart's View of Life, the Universe & Coffee
Idaho is still on lock down, but we managed to escape for a few hours to drive through Emmett, Idaho capturing on digital film whatever we could. We did not come within 100 yards of any other human being.
Practicing more “social distancing” today by driving through the vastness of Idaho. Grabbed a few photos of old structures.
One of my favorite half day trips is to take I-84 east and exit onto Blacks Creek Rd, following it into Elmore County. Eventually it starts following the South Fork of the Boise River. The views are spectacular regardless of the season. Eventually you will arrive at the lovely town of Prairie and the Y-Stop Country Store and Restaurant. Today we did not travel that far, but far enough to see a bunch of deer, some antelope, couple of hawks, sort sort of wood chuck and a whistle pig. Not a bad day!
We came home via Kuna-Mora Road.
Photos are below. Click to enlarge.
Out today for a drive along the Owyhee Front we discovered the road to Silver City, Idaho. Silver City is not open now, but we were excited by the views and the smooth pavement at the beginning. Also, the sign that warned travelers if they passed it and had to be rescued that the cost would be on them! C’mon, you see a sign like that you just gotta go investigate, right? Besides, it was a cool day, no fires anywhere, no chance of any kind of precipitation, A beautiful clear blue sky above us.
Keep in mine, unlike everyone else in Idaho, we don’t own a three story 22 cylinder pick-up truck. We have a tiny Kia Soul. 4 Cylinder engine, low ground clearance, designed for good paved highways and city traffic. Not a road from hell. Yet, we have taken the Kia on many such roads, and it has thrived. As long as you can deal with a top speed of 7 miles per hour. Occasionally a burst to eight.
This map shows you about where we stopped. Five miles from Silver City. The paved highway turned into a rocky dirt road hugging cliffs and hills where no guard rail has ever lived. And that was the good section of the road. We were eventually strongly encouraged by some locals in one of those three story pick-up trucks to turn back, that the “road” up ahead turned into just a pile of large boulders. Also, our Kia Soul did not have much ground clearance and sagebrush being everywhere we did not want our car to start a fire. Because in Idaho, they will charge you for the cost of putting the fire out.
See Boise in the upper right? That’s our home. Toward the bottom you see the red marker? That is Silver City. The blue X? That is where we turned around. Do you see the highways there? No, we didn’t either! Enjoy the photos below!
Today Suze and I attended service at Eagle Christian Church where Dr. Crane was teaching from the book of Acts. Then we went for coffee at Bobbie Jeans, a coffee house inside an old house in the city of Star. By the way, they serve grits! Real Southern grits!!!! Anyway, then we continued west through Canyon County on West State Road, turned onto Old Highway 30, then Idaho 52 and eventually Idaho 16 which brought us back home. All together we crossed into five counties: Ada, Canyon, Payette, Gem and Boise.
This Fall seems brighter and more colorful than the last two years. Or, maybe I am brighter and more colorful!
Originally we were heading toward Stack Rock, but the road we were planning on taking, Cartwright Road, has been blocked off. Huge metal gate, several “No Trespassing” signs, warnings that the entire area is under video surveillance, etc. I have seen less secure areas at the National Guard base! I’ve contacted Ada County Highway District for clarification. Both Google maps on my Desktop and and my smartphone GPS guided me toward this road, so I doubt it is a private road.
Anyway, we backtracked and took Bogus Basin Road up to Bogus Basin, and from there took the extremely bumpy dirt and rock road to Shafer Butte Campground. The road and the campground were beautiful!
Click on the photos below to see full size.
Drove up Idaho 55 along the Payette River. Caught these crazy people on kayaks and rafts blasting through white water and might I add, boulder filled rapids! Amazing job they did!
