Southern Idaho – Getaway

Greg and I try to get away together in March. We don’t really celebrate our anniversary in October because he’s hunting so we try and do it in March – the month we met. We don’t get to do it every year but when we can make it work it’s nice.

This was a year we made it work. We’ve decided to try and explore different areas of Idaho. We’ve seen a lot of the state but there is still so much we haven’t seen.

Through Instagram I found this place in Southern Idaho that looked interesting. I’d always wanted to go to the City of Rocks but never had. So I thought this was a perfect opportunity.

We stayed in a little motel called the March Creek Inn, in a small town called Albion. It’s about 2.5 hours from Boise. On our way down there the Inn called and told us they had an event to be at and wouldn’t be there to check us in. They left the key in our room and the door was unlocked. Love small town charm like that. When we got there sure enough we got into our room just fine. In fact we never did check in or see much of anyone.

That night we went to Declo – another small town about 15 miles away. We ate at a nice steak restaurant – it was spendy but delicious. We were so full we did get dessert but had to take it to go.

When we got back to the Inn we took a dip on the hot tub. We were the only people in there – it was nice and quiet.

Saturday we got up and slowly got ready. We didn’t really have plans other then I wanted to go to the City of Rocks. Greg got started on our dinner for the night – our tradition of corned beef and cabbage. We didn’t think we’d be gone that long so we only took some snacks with us as we set out.

We figured we might as well go see Pomerelle – a ski resort near. I’d seen the sign but never been there. We drove up – saw it, turned around and went back down the mountain. There were pretty views but other then that not much to see.

We headed towards the City of Rocks but stopped at the Castle Rocks State Park first. The weather was not our friend – it was windy and cold with snow on and off. We drove around the Castle Rock Park, took a few pictures and got back in the car.

City of Rocks wasn’t too far. I didn’t do much research and didn’t realize how big this was! We pulled into an area and saw some rock formations in the distance, we thought ok we must have to hike to them. We got all bundled up and set out to hike. It was COLD. The wind was blowing snow sideways. We made it to where I could see the rock formations and get a few pictures and then I was done. We went back to the car. I thought, dang that was it. I was kinda bummed.

Instead of going back to the main road we took a another turn and realized oh, now we are in the City of Rocks. There was so much to see, so many gnarly looking rocks. Lots of roads to drive down, places to hike, incredibly cool camp sites. We drove around for hours, stopping, exploring and getting pictures.

We saw a sign for a window arch. I’d seen pictures of this and knew I had to go. We drove to the area and it said it was only a 300 ft hike. Yes! However, the weather had turned and it was a snow blizzard. The weather had been sporadic all day so we figured if we waited a while it would turn again. We sat in the car for 20 minutes and sure enough it turned sunny. We got out and hiked through the fresh snow to the window arch. It was pretty cool but so was the view and rock formations around it. Well worth the wait and hike.

We ended up spending the whole day there – luckily we had some beef jerky to keep us going. We were ready to get back to our room and have our corned beef and cabbage.

We headed back to the Inn – about a 40 minute drive. We realized that the before you turn into the City of Rocks the road just ends. Greg was so amused that we had literally hit the end of the road. On our way back I spotted a big bird eating some roadkill. Greg turned around and we crept close to the bird. I realized it was a Golden Eagle. He let us get pretty close. I was able to get some great pictures.

That night we had our delicious dinner and decided to go to a hot springs about 35 minutes away. However, when we got there and saw it was packed we decided to just go back to the Inn and get in the hot tub again. Worked out great, we once again where the only people in there.

Sunday we got up and headed home. I wanted to drive by Balanced Rock. It was pretty cool. Just this little canyon in the middle of nowhere with this incredible rock formations again and a boulder balancing on a tiny portion. There was a park nearby we stopped at for a bit. It was actually very pretty.

On our way home, we were driving past Hagerman and saw a fish hatchery and wildlife refuge. As we drove past it, I noticed some big white something in the pond. I was driving and turned around it was 100’s of snow geese. We decided to try and get close. Greg found a path on his maps, so we parked and started walking. We didn’t get super close but closer. In the meantime though we saw lots of other birds and a mink!

We saw a lot of animals on this trip – deer, lots of deer, golden eagle, lots of rock chucks, different kinds of birds. It was exciting.

We had a great time and glad we get to adventure together.

When we first got into town we saw so many wild turkeys. We pulled over so we could get a picture of all of them and they all rushed towards our vehicle, we assume someone must feed them.

On our way to dinner I grabbed my camera and long lens, thinking we’d see the turkeys again. We did and I got a few photos of them but we also saw a herd of deer up on the top of a hill.

We didn’t want to roll the window down all the way, these turkeys were getting really close!

Castle Rocks

City of Rocks

We walked down this road to get these formations while the wind was blowing slow sideways. We were walking against it. It was pretty miserable. I had an eyelash fly into my eye. It was so painful I couldn’t even open my eye for Greg to help me get it out. After what seemed like an hour we finally got it and could go on. I’m very dramatic and told him I almost lost an eye and he saved me.

He forgot his sunglasses and borrowed mine.

By the time we made it here, it was sunny and nice. What a trip this weather was.

I thought this rock looked like a cupcake – Greg thought it looked like something else.

Love this picture – I feel like it perfectly shows the weather, cloudy and dark on one side and cloudy blue skies on the other.

This is from the car while we waited out a snow blizzard to get to the window arch.

Another herd of deer we saw on the way back to the Inn.

Golden Eagle!

We ate the cheesecake we got the night before for dessert.

We drove past this house several times and we both thought it looked crooked. If you look at the horizon line in the back it is straight but the house is leaning.