Off to Idaho Falls

Last night - June 21, 2017
I finally got a pic of Mom & Fred before we headed out.

Last night we were all sitting outside visiting and we happen to look over and see a beautiful sunset.

June 22, 2017
Today we leave Fred & Carolyn's and head to Idaho Falls. It's been such a joy to be here with them and spend time with them as well as Marion & Sally. I'm kind of sad to leave but I'm sure we will see them all again.
We were going to take the route to Twin Falls, but we've heard the way to Stanley is the way to go! The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is a site to see and the Payette River is on the side of you the entire time.











On our journey to Stanley the peaks appeared. Beautiful scenic views.
We stopped in Stanley at the Stanley Baking Co. and Cafe and had something to eat. We both had breakfast even though it was mid-day. Really good homemade boysenberry jam - yum!

In Stanley all the roads were dirt and gravel, they did have stop signs and a few restaurants and shops. Not much to it.










Off the road out of Stanley, we came across these little honda mini's. Like my Dad liked to collect!

Now we were off to Redfish Lake. Just a little bit down the road from Stanley. On the way to the lake, a bald eagle flew overhead. That was pretty neat!
Water was crisp and clear with the beautiful mountains all around. Definitely a place to come back to.

They have a lodge, restaurant, outside cafe and a grassy area to layout or hangout. There's no beach around the lake, but lots of people had their chairs setup just around the edges. Many people were kayaking and paddle boarding.

After the lake, we kept driving and literally saw 360° views of the Sawtooth Mountains. I had to get a panoramic picture. It was amazing! Here's a few below. They do go in order.

We could do a Subaru commercial!

We drove until we passed the valley floor and climbed in elevation to where the road came to a great overlook of the road we just traveled on. On the way, we did see some antelope. We were trying to count all the wildlife we saw as it was very minimal.

Here's our views:

We spent a lot of time here, just through all the peaks and valleys. We couldn't get enough!

From Stanley and the Sawtooth Mountains, we traveled through Sun Valley, Ketchum(we thought Ketchum was a cute town), Hailey, Bellevue to Carey and then beyond to make our way to Craters of the Moon National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm

Lots of lava rocks in various formations, there is quite a lot of plants and flowers that have grown inside and around the rocks. It's a very interesting process on how they develop over time. As well as how the rocks break down due to pollution and or humans breaking them. Read more on the link I posted above.

We got to Craters of the Moon about 4:45, the Visitor Center closed at 6pm, but the park was open 24 hrs. We drove the 7 mile loop around the park to see the peculiar but interesting rocks. There were several other walks and different hikes, but we still had a ways to travel so we continued on. I think we were at the park until a little after 6pm.

We figured it doesn't get dark until after after 9:30pm, so we would just wing it and find a hotel when we got to Idaho Falls. We didn't have service in Craters of the Moon and there wasn't anything out there past that. We crossed a town called Atomic City. It was like a ghost town. Big wide streets, but we didn't see any people.











The night before I had looked at Candlewood Suites(should've booked when I had the chance!) We stopped here - all booked! The hotel clerk called several other hotels in the area and everyone was booked too. Even Motel 6! What to do......
Drama for the night... well maybe not drama but a bit of stress!
Mom said, we can go to an Elk's Lodge and sleep in the car. We found the Elk's Lodge, not really where I want to spend the night. We went by some other ghetto looking hotels - all sold out.
We ended up going to Albertsons to get a salad and sat in the parking lot trying to decide what to do. I thought of AirBnB. I found a room w/ bathroom share for $50 just outside of Idaho Falls. I went through all the steps, but then it said the person would let you know within 24hrs. What!? We needed something now! It was already 9pm and getting dark.
I ended up looking outside of Idaho Falls. Blackfoot & Pocatello was 30 minutes to an hour SW. I looked on Booking.com and found a La Quinta Suites in Pocatello. Booked it and we decided we would just drive the hour away and stay in a hotel room. During the time of getting gas, the lady from AirBnB contacted us and said we could come over to her house for the night. Ugh! I would literally lose my entire payment on the hotel I just booked, so we decided even though it would be longer to get there, we would have a bed with a bathroom that we didn't have to share with some randoms. I contacted the lady of the house we would've stayed at to tell her we weren't coming and to ask for a refund.
Mom drove, as I drove all day from Boise. We got to La Quinta in Pocatello. Guess what!? They didn't have our reservation as they are doing renovation and all the online suppliers think there are open rooms, when there are not. There was a couple in front of us that had booked on Priceline, and same thing. So, now I have to work with Booking.com and hopefully get my money back.
Good thing, was the guy there gave us the number to Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino. We called them from the parking lot and booked a room over the phone! Wohoo! It was only about 10 minutes or so, back the way we came on Hwy 15. Big huge hotel, separate from the casino. Nice comfy beds & big bathroom, all no smoking rooms. We got into our room @ 11pm. http://www.shobanhotel.com/

I don't know how people do it, just wing it. I mean we have pretty much as we haven't known where we were going to stop. But now we are getting into the busier areas. We'll have to do some planning.