Our initial thought was to drive to Mountain Home then cut north and east on highway 20 for just ten or twenty miles. Since the highway traverses through the Boise National Forest we figured birds and wildlife would be so thick we would need a wildlife plow on the front of our Kia Soul to push them off the road. Sadly, we only skirted along the edge of the forest and saw about seven trees in total, and half that number for birds. Normally we stop every mile or two in order to scout for birds to photograph. It can take us an hour to cover just fifteen miles. But with the lack of trees and wildlife, we decided to just push as far down the road as possible until we discovered something interesting. We did!
We captured some awesome photographs along the way and once we got further into the mountains the trees did show up. We drove beyond Ketchum and up to about 8,300 feet where we could get a nice look at some of the Sawtooth Mountains, which were still snow capped. We even stepped in a patch of snow along the road which is cool to do in June. For Floridians anyway.
We drove back to Ketchum and enjoyed a very pleasant dinner outside under blossoming trees caressed by a cool breeze at a great Italian place called Ricco’s. The server, Rick was awesome, filled with various life stories and truly appeared to be enjoying his job. Another couple joined us outside and we began a long conversation with them punctuated by several bursts of warm laughter. It was an extremely enjoyable dinner.
We then climbed back in our Kia Soul and headed back down highway 20 to I-84 and then home to west Boise.
Photographs from our adventure are below.
