Idaho Beauty

	MY BEAUTIFUL IDAHO
	To all of you Californians -- read no further. Idaho is just a flat place with potato fields. You won't like it here Notellem Lake We only got to go camping once this summer. Sometimes life doesn't want to let you out of town. We went to some beautiful lakes. It was just my son, my grandson, and myself on a short, grab-it-while -you-can trip, so unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but this is a good shot. The guys enjoyed swimming in the lake. Other than four teenagers laughing, playing, and swimming off a dock, we had it all to ourselves. The beautyand simplicity of it was profound. Idaho Syringa - State Flower Idaho Mountain Bluebird Common Loon My Grandson enjoyed throwing rocks in the lake. He helped me cook, and he helped his Daddy by holding tent pegs. Kicking rocks in the dirt was big fun. It was a job keeping him covered all night. He kept kicking out of his sleeping bag. There were some mean horseflies in camp. We sat by the smoke of the campfire to keep them away. OUCH! Mosquitoes were thick this year too, but bug spray did the trick for that. We enjoyed watching the birds and squirrels that visited. A loon kept splashing and calling across the lake all night. He thought he owned it apparently -- turns out he did. He kept me awake for a long time. We woke in the night, sensing something outside our tent. In the morning, we found deer tracks going by our tent. Ah, but that's what camping is all about -- getting out with the critters and sharing their world. A former camping trip where my son made me camp in a cow pasture on the side of a mountain. Idaho is a state with so much beauty, it's hard to ever leave. The Idaho Rockies are spectacular Stanley ID Idaho Wild Flowers Salmon River (River of No Return) -- Sawtooth Mountains Del Gue: "I ain't never seen 'em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! Keep good care of your hair! These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here! And there ain't no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live 'til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent." Jeremiah Johnson 1972 Silver City (Ghost Town) Idaho City, ID One of our old mining towns still alive today Seven Devils Mountain Range Hells Canyon -- Deepest Canyon in the U.S. The grounds around Kirkwood Ranch, Hells Canyon on the Idaho side Owyhee River Pack String Indian Paintbrush Sagebrush From desert canyons to working ranches, Idaho has it all