Memorial Weekend Road trip Odyssey!

I always try to have my Spring piano recital the Monday before Memorial Day.

My students did great this year and it's always so nice to finish the school year and start enjoying a little time off.

 Boise has been so warm lately so I've been doing a lot of hiking in the foothills.

My friend Melissa and I went on this beautiful hike last Friday.

 Tom and I have a goal to see every last inch of the state of Idaho (well maybe not every inch), so each Memorial weekend we take a road trip odyssey to explore this great state of ours.

Our first stop was Stanley where we had a fabulous picnic.

 Aren't those snow covered Sawtooths gorgeous?

 We then stopped at the Yankee Fork dredge up along the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River north of Stanley.  This old dredge was used from 1940-1950 to mine gold and silver.  It's pretty impressive how big it is and how much rock it dug up out of the river bed.

 Our next stop was Custer, Idaho. It is an old mining ghost town up above the Yankee Fork dredge established in the late 1800's.

The state of Idaho has done a great job explaining the history of Custer with historical signs along a walking path.  It was a one street town with up to 300 people at it's height.

 We took a drive along the East Fork of the Salmon river and found an interesting hot springs.

 

It was a beautiful drive.


 

 

 We stayed in Challis that night and the next morning we had a delicious breakfast at a cute little tea house in Challis.

The hot chocolate was so yummy!

 Next stop, Gold Bug Hot Springs.

We arrived at the trail head and unfortunately we found about 15 cars already in the parking lot.
 

We decided to go for it and headed up the 2.5 mile hike

 Beautiful views at the top. 

This hot springs sits at the top of the valley which is pretty unusual.

 Because it is spring, there were only 2 of the 5 pools available for use
(the others were still flooded with water runoff)

Tom jumped right in, but it was a little too crowded for my taste.

 Beautiful views!

 On our hike out we passed about 25 more people, and 10 dogs hiking in to the hot springs.

I guess you could say Gold Bug hot springs has been discovered.

 Our final destination was Salmon, Idaho.

I had never been to Salmon so I was anxious to check it out.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.  Salmon sits in a beautiful valley on the border with Montana surrounded by the Bitter-root mountains in Montana and the Lemhi mountains in Idaho.
Tom's Mom lived in Salmon for a year when she was a teenager and worked at this store.
 

Sacajewea was born in the Salmon area and then kidnapped by another Indian tribe when she was a teenager and taken to North Dakota.  She was thrilled to return to Salmon with the Lewis and Clark expedition.  There is a very informative historical Sacajewea center in Salmon that has an amazing walking path along the Lemhi river.
 

 

 We toured the center and took a drive up into the Bitterroot mountains and found another hot springs
 
 
 and then found our bed and breakfast place in Salmon.

 

It sat up on top of a hill with the Salmon river running in the canyon below.

The views were amazing.
 

 

 We found a great local restaurant for dinner and the next morning we went to church in Salmon.  Surprisingly there are 3 wards in Salmon, Idaho.

They were so friendly and happy to have us visit.

We packed up and headed back to Boise and stopped for a picnic lunch along the way in Stanley.

I'm not sure what kind of face Tom is making.

 We made it home in time to attend an Eagle court of Honor on Sunday evening.

The next day was Memorial day and I had gotten a phone call from one of Sara's best high school friends, Frauke, who was visiting from Germany.  I invited her and her husband Stefan and baby Jonas over for a Memorial day picnic.

It was so fun seeing her after 15 years.

We love Frauke and family.

I can't wait for our next road trip odyssey!