Holy Taters Batman!

Palisades Lake, Calamity NF

Irwin, ID

 

 

After leaving  Twin Falls, we drove towards the Grand Tetons and spent a week at Calamity Campground just before the border to Wyoming.  The rolling green hills were covered with, you guessed it, taters!  Fields and fields of them!  Idaho Spuds as far as you can see!  

 

 

 

The crops just went on forever.  Very pretty view as you drove along the Snake River.  Of course fishing is very popular here and you see many row-type fishing boats in the swift currents.

 

 

 Many barns and other interesting things to see along the way.

 

We're sure glad we stayed here.  I had read about it on another bloggers post way back (sorry I can't remember whose) UPDATE: It was Shifting Gears who shared this great campground! What a beautiful campground.  Very small and very well kept.  Since 911, you can no longer reach the campground by a short drive over the dam.  Now you must drive around and over the mountain for about 5 miles.  We were not sure of taking the 5er over so we asked the camp hosts at the campground at the base of the mountains on the Snake River how the road was.  Turns out it is a wide, very packed gravel road which all they side trees and shrubs have been trimmed.  It was in excellent condition.  Even the turns were wide. 

Our site, B08.

There are several sites that would fit a larger rig like ours (almost 40 ft).  They are made twice as wide because so many folks have ATVs or boats so there is plenty of room for the truck parked next to it.  Very pretty and private.  Easy to maneuver through.  No much shade as the trees are kept trimmed back, but the temps are cooler up here anyway.  It also gave us plenty of room for our portable solar panel.

An example of another campsite that would hold a large rig.  Fire pit is up the stairs.

Many sites have a step down fire pit area with a nice swing arm over the fire pit grill.  Really cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove walked around the lake investigating.  Hurley was in heaven as he could play in the lake all day.  There were no shortage of sticks either.

 

 

 

There were many firs and pines in different shapes and sizes.  Very pretty area.  We drove around the backroads, checked out some hiking trails and did a little kayaking.

 

Pretty Aspen Groves throughout the pines. 

Interesting little trailer parked way out here.

We also are here just as the Huckleberries are ripe.  We picked several and had them in yogurt, oatmeal and our favorite, in pancakes!  They looked like small blueberries.  We even had some Square Cone Huckleberry Ice Cream down the road.


    

 

Pancakes and sausage, yumm!

Another day we had some errands to run so we drove back to Idaho Falls.  It's a very pretty town with a really nice downtown that has the falls running through it.  There was a beautiful park that also ran along both sides of the river.  People were out walking, jogging and having picnics.  We joined them.

 

 

Topiary sculptures of moose.

Park benches were made into very unique shapes and objects throughout the river walk.

 

 

As we crossed over yet another bridge, we had the treat to watch a couple just about to exchange their vows.  An interesting wedding as the wedding party as well as the guests were dressed however they wanted to I guess.  Some were dressed up fancy, and others had a quite interesting wardrobe on.

On our last day before we crossed into Wyoming, we decided to do some geocaching as there were many hidden along the Snake River and we were almost at 100 caches found.  We were about to retrieve one and there was another couple there doing the same and trying not to be observed.  But we knew what they were up to!  Steve surprised them and said, "You've been muggled!"  This particular cache was very cleverly hidden and we had a good time talking about geocaching and fulltime RVing.  They decided to join us for our 100th cache find.  Turns out it was just over the border.

Me, Steve, Jim & Cherie.  They are from Illinois.

Find #100 and a new state to add!

Jim and Cherie are workcamping in Jackson and so we will meet up with them for dinner or drinks next week.  It's such a fun lifestyle and we love random meetups like this.

 

Good night Idaho!