Saturday, August 24, 2024

Day 7: Idaho, Land of Potatoes and Waterfalls

On Day 7 we woke up late and lazy in our temporary estate in Swan Valley, Idaho.

It was delightful. We played shuffleboard, laid around, did laundry, I caught up on a few work emails (the only time I opened my laptop on the trip, which was INCREDIBLE)... I think we finally decided made a plan for the day around 11 a.m. The plan first involved eating lunch, so James ran to the Swan Valley General Store to get some sandwiches, and once those were eaten, we headed to Fall Creek Falls! A spot my friend recommended, that internet promised we could swim at, and that google maps said was less than 15 minutes away.

You guys, I don't know what is in your head when you think about Idaho, but mine mostly goes to potatoes. And I mean that as a compliment. I LOVE potatoes. All potatoes in all forms, they are possibly my favorite food.

But turns out Idaho is also basically Costa Rica.
I mean look at this!!
We thought it was a short walk from the road to get down to the falls, but turns out it's more of a "use a rope to scale down a small mountain in your sandals" kind of adventure.
Then you wandered through some marsh and very tall grass and then bam, a secret resort. In Idaho.
Other than really wishing we all had water shoes, which is hardly the secret resort's fault, it was perfect.
The moss on the rocks was soft and surprisingly grippy. The water temperature was cool and perfect. The were secret pools and waterfalls everywhere.
We climbed and explored and swam. For $0 and some sunscreen.
Landon picked up a pet snake but we made him put it back.
We got back home in the late afternoon, showed and rested, and then headed back to Jackson Hole for dinner at the pretty fantastic Gather restaurant we'd made a reservation at the night before.
We ordered all the appetizers and Landon liked the pork buns so much he ordered two more rounds as his entree. I had an elk bolognese that was insanely good. We loved everything.
It was such a nice evening. We walked all around, exploring shops and buying t-shirts.

We drove back home at sunset, watched a movie in the game room, and went to sleep. It was our simplest and one of our favorite days.

Idaho! We love you.

4 comments:

  1. LOVE these reviews as we are heading to Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone very soon. I had booked Gather before reading about your meal there-glad that you had a great meal. Also bought the thermometer!

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    1. Yay!! Gather is SO good! So excited about your trip- if I could go back immediately I would!

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  2. I hope you got square ice cream in Swan Valley!

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    1. So we wanted to but were always too full of other things when we went to the general store. On our last day James finally took one for the team and got some so we could all try! Delicious!

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