Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, E. Idaho

We started our trip by heading East from Boise toward Craters of the Moon National Monument.

We took a short hike in Craters of the Moon over the old lava flows.

Yellowstone National Park has so many beautiful sights! Geysers, boiling mud pots, colorful springs, steam vents, forests, waterfalls, terraces, bison and coyotes and pika and gorgeous mountain views!

Colorful springs in Yellowstone

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces in Yellowstone

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Bison

Yellowstone Waterfall

Yellowstone Waterfall Family Photo

Lots of these gorgeous clear blue pools along many of the hikes in the Park.  The most colorful being Morning Glory Pool.

Old Faithful Geyser

Inside Old Faithful Lodge

Sunset from the cabin porch

Grand Tetons National Park

We took a lakefront hike and had this view along the whole way

Grand Tetons National Park

One of the many elk antler arches in downtown Jackson Hole

Driggs, Idaho

Bayhorse Historic Gold Mine in Idaho

Yankee Fork gold dredge near Custer Ghost Town

Dad met us in Boise this September and we took him on a road trip around the historic towns and hot springs of Eastern Idaho as well as Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.  Our trip included a wide variety of scenery from the volcanic rocks at Craters of the Moon, to the jagged granite peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley and all the deserts, forests, canyons, ranches and historic gold mining towns in between. We saw coyotes, bison and a black bear, waterfalls, geysers, steam vents as well as cowboy hat shops and a hot air balloon.  My favorite was the stargazing in Yellowstone, the authentic Thai in Driggs and the hot springs outside of Challis.

August in Tahoe & McCall

We visited my family in early August and our first sightseeing location was the NV Railroad Museum in Carson City, which is an amazing place with a lot of beautiful artifacts.

The renovated trains are gorgeous!

Some weekends they take the trains outside of the building and one can ride them.

This luxurious model was used to transport business executives.

The inside.

We went to the Hot August Nights antique trailer show.

It was fun to see the Hot August Nights historic cars all over the city.

This one was my favorite; shiny and pink inside and out.

We spent a few days in South Lake Tahoe enjoying the beaches, trails and sights.

We hiked along the shore of Echo Lake for a beautiful view.

Echo Lake family photo.

We tried out different beaches in the area.  What a peaceful place!

We found the fish display and marsh hike, which lent itself to incredible mountain views of Mt. Tallac where we hiked with Tibor, Dora and the girls a couple years ago.

Back in Idaho, we went on some late summer hikes, including this one to Boulder Lake.

We visited Tamarack to see the new owner's construction progress.  Scaffolding is up!

The hike with Cynthia and Delta to Grass Mountain Lake had incredibly expansive views.

View from Williams Peak Lookout hike.

Williams Peak with helicopter resupply.

Williams Peak Fire Lookout.

Barbecue and beach time at Firemans' point on Payette Lake; a perfect summer thing to do.

What a scenic spot to grill! Wagyu steaks and bacon wrapped jalapenos.

We surprised our family with a visit in early August after the terrible news of my sweet Grandma's passing.  I don't quite have the words to relate how deeply she will be missed and how gracefully she touched our lives.  I think of her laugh often, along with her strength and kindness.

The trip to Tahoe was beautiful and a great way to take long walks and have nice dinners with my parents.  Also to see a bit of Lake Tahoe more closely.  Our time back in McCall was spent hiking and biking and relaxing with friends.  Love you all!

Idaho & Oregon in July

After my trip to Reno and California and Dave's extra week at work, we came home to McCall to beautiful weather.  Our only paddle-boarding trip this summer was fantastic!  We went with our friends Colin and Delta up the slowly moving "meanders" portion of the river that drains into Payette Lake.

We had dinner outside at the Chinese restaurant, which always has the best lake view!

We caught the bear grass flower blossoms this July off of Warren Wagon Road on the hike to Josephine Lake.  It's always worth the trip seeing entire hillsides covered by these gorgeous flowers.

Bear grass blossom up close.

Bear grass with the trail in the background.

View down the valley.

Dave and I are always thrilled when we catch bear grass season in early July.  Also morel mushroom season in late April/early May, huckleberry season in late July and the Tamarack trees turning golden brown in late October.

Love this guy and this hike!

I had perfect timing on this photo of a deer I startled.

After just a week at home, we drove to eastern Oregon to meet up with Dave's cousin Amy and her family for a camping and hiking trip in the Steens mountains.  We met up at a hot spring resort/campground in the valley.

We visited some historical towns, did some scenic drives and hiked in the mountains.

We caught wildflower season up at the higher elevations.  There were red and yellow paintbrush and mountainsides turned purple by the wild lupines.

Hiking and enjoying the view.

Dave looking down below at the Alvord desert.

We drove down to the desert and got to actually drive on the salt flats, which was so neat!

Rob, Zach, Amy, Ildi and Dave. We had a wonderful time filled with laughter, chats by the fire before nightfall, delicious meals, hammock napping and hiking.  We are so happy we did this trip together!  I'm really looking forward to the 2nd annual get together next year.  Luckily there are a ton of gorgeous State and National Monuments where we can meet up halfway.

The desert was a perfect place to teach Zach about driving since we were the only car out there.

We saw some wild horses up really close. They took an interest in Dave as they walked past.

We finally celebrated Dave's Birthday the night before we flew up to work at an Airbnb in Boise.  Love you all and thanks for looking at our photos!