It was such a treat since there were hardly any last year!
On our property, after being on a three year waiting list (that we swapped from our old property to our new one), we finally had the well drilling company come out and drill us a water well!
They worked very quickly so we only got to see a little bit of the process.
It was $19,000, and they were able to drill down to good water at 195 feet!
The drill bit.
It was unfortunately a huge fire year so quite a bit of smoke in town.
Daisies in town.
Our habanero pepper plant produced two peppers!
Dave made his amazing huckleberry lemon meringue tarts from his Grandma's recipe.
A hummingbird resting. We absolutely love sitting on the porch watching the hummingbirds come by and eat and rest, sometimes chase each other.
Mariposa Lillies
The corn Lillies en route to Hidden Lake
Corn Lillies
This is an incredibly wildflower blanketed area that we remember being such twenty years ago when we first hiked to the lakes. Scarlet Paintbrush.
Upper Hazard Lake
Hiking alongside Hard Creek lake to get up to Upper Hazard Lake.
Dave at Hazard Creek Lake.
I love making (and eating) veggie sushi!
We hiked past the turnoff for 20 mile lakes on the trail off Warren Wagon road and found the trail easy and quite scenic.
We've often seen mountain bikers on this trail and wanted to see the terrain.
Fireweed and mountain views.
Dave makes incredible pizza with dough from scratch. Always yummy!
On a long bike ride past ranches that we made into a loop trail going down the rail trail, past ranches and over to West Mountain road to return to McCall. We had biked this once before with our dear friend Johan many years ago. Lots of great views along the way!
I worked a few days at our friend Clare's boutique store at Tamarack Resort. I still don't appreciate or understand why people spend so much on things they don't need, but the store itself was beautiful.
Our new water well head. Yay!
I made vegan meatloaf, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. It was delicious!
A sprouted mango seed that I planted. They look so cool and grow fast!
Champagne Mango tree!
New summer hat from Gravity Sports. We went to see their new location off the highway.
We tried paddle boarding on Upper Payette Lake again.
It was beautiful albeit very challenging with the wind and currents.
Resting spot on Upper Payette Lake.
Sunset on Payette Lake.
I went to Reno to visit my parents. A walk by the marsh with Mom.
We went bowling at the Grand Sierra Resort.
Mom & Dad usually beat me, but we always have fun.
Family photo.
We also went to Circus Circus & Eldorado Hotel to see a circus show and play games.
The fountains at Eldorado.
A fun downtown outing.
It was great to see them and help them and we had some great fun.
Back in Boise we saw some interesting trees and plants, and the acorns are always exotic looking to me.
And did our new summer Boise favorite of riding electric scooters by the river.
Artists bench along the Boise River Greenbelt.
There's so much ground to cover with the river greenbelt being so long and on both sides of the river.
Had a blast!
Back at home our impatiens flowers (red and white) were looking amazing!
We went to see a live music show in town and got to see an incredible sunset.
We decided to see a bit more of Idaho and took a roadtrip to visit the Frank Church River or No Return Wilderness. Got so see some great small towns along the way, including Salmon Idaho.
We freedom camped along the Salmon River in the Frank Church.
Beautiful & peaceful view.
The following day we had a gorgeous drive next to the river.
And at the end of the road, we came to a beautiful hike.
We were stunned by peaceful views and decided that we needed to come back and see more of the Wilderness Area.
This is where a lot of rafting groups start their long journey through the Frank Church to the other side of the Wilderness area.
Dave leading the way.
Stunning views of mountains on our hike by the Salmon River.
We saw mountain goats on our drive out.
We continued our drive north and looped back around into Idaho from Montana.
We stopped to see the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove just south of Lolo Pass 9 miles from the Montana border. It's always been a favorite stop of mine.
We camped near the Lochsa River so that we could hike and see a bit of of the trees.
Dave on the pedestrian bridge across the Lochsa to Jerry Johnson hot springs trail.
A fun way to start a hike!
Incredibly clean water and gorgeous views!
We hiked on a scenic trail to a natural hot springs by a fork of the river.
View from hot springs.
Hot water cascading into the springs by the river. Jerry Johnson hot springs.
We went on a beautiful hike the following day along the Selway River.
In Idaho, near Lowell, the Selway River and Lochsa join to create the Clearwater. This was our first time visiting the Selway River.
It was a scenic drive out to the trailhead and a beautiful river.
It was great to explore a bit more of the area between McCall and Missoula, Montana. We had done that drive several times without time to see the sights and hike the trails.
Brian came to visit and explore the McCall area with us. This is Hazard Creek Lake.
It was absolutely stunning and we were one of the only cars in the valley.
It was incredibly scenic!
A long drive, but we were finally back in the Frank Church at the start of our backpacking trip in the Big Horn Crags area.
We were absolutely swept away by the incredible beauty and how there were almost no other visitors there. To us, the Bighorn Crags looked like a cross between Yosemite and Patagonia, with well kept trails and alpine lakes every few minutes. We met some Forest Service workers on our drive out and reported the wildfire.
Saw some more mountain goats along the drive.
We went on lots of hikes in Craters of the Moon, visited all the overlooks and explored the caves. Our idea to visit more of the natural beauty in Idaho was certainly a great one. We remembered how much we love camping and exploring new areas, especially nature! A fabulous July & August!
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