Spring Vacation

We took a quick (2 day) trip last week while there was no preschool nor soccer. Just a couple hours southeast of Boise is Thousand Springs State Park. First (and best) stop: The Malad Gorge - which is literally just off the freeway. This is the initial view with which you're rewarded for exiting: This is from the foot bridge that runs parallel to the freeway. Here is the view behind you, underneath the interstate: There is a paved trail alongside the gorge for a bit and at the end of the pavement there are no "Go Back" signs but instead the trail turns into a dirt path. We set off on an adventure...At first Sam prefered to get some space and wander away from us - and the trail. He only wandered in the open sagebrush, though, not anywhere near a cliff. Unlike the rest of us.
Sam saw a rabbit or two (Mark tried to chase after one) and later we saw a small furry guy on the rocks. We saw lots of evidence of animals and, when the sun came out, we saw a lot of birds, too. There were a lot of birds swimming in the spring-fed oasis on the other side of the divide we were hiking (guess Sam wasn't just on open field after all).This was the view from the tip of the divide, beyond which we would have needed wings to proceed.On the return hike the boys decided to try a little climbing on this convenient rocky formation. (For a video of Sam climbing, click here.)

It wasn't a little rabbit he saw, but a lizard!
Pretty high up on the far side, eh? Turns out there was an easy way back down. Proof that I was there.This was the scariest moment of the trip... I had a tremor of terror when I went to bed that night, remembering the struggle I'd had to keep Charlie off the edge. Just take the picture!! Almost back to the pavement (you can see the look-out on the upper left, the oxidized bridge back to our car above the "falls"), Sam took a last moment to reflect. We then took the scenic highway into Hagerman to find lodging. There we also found the NPS Fossil Beds Visitor Center still open, so we got to check out the "Hagerman Horse" (prehistoric zebra) skeleton, as well as lots of other kid-friendly exhibits, and picked up free maps and coloring pages. From there, we decided to visit the actual fossil beds and nearby Oregon Trail markers... lame.

Also lame, in the morning we visited the Hagerman National Fish Hatchery. It was freezing cold and there just wasn't much to see, but lots of men fishing in the adjacent stocked lakes.From there, we drove farther down Highway 30, passing about 15 of the supposed 1000 springs coming out of the mountainside (too early in the season), but no matter because we saw several Canada geese and we were on our way to the private Catfish/Aligator farm. Oh yeah.
Then it was back to the freeway to head just a little farther SE to see Shoshone Falls (on the Snake River, pictured here at the bridge into the city of Twin Falls).

The falls were a bit underwhelming, again due to the snow still being in the mountains, but the kids and I had never been and it was definitely worth the extra few minutes' drive.Letting the sun soak in, enjoying the view and the time together...

Then we hit the road and headed home, with an unexpected finale to our vacation being homemade pizza with Mark's sister Val and her adorable family. In sum: anyone local and anyone coming on vacation to the area would do well to make plans to spend some time in the Thousand Springs vicinity, we had a blast!