#Gates50States

Checking 3 states off our list in one trip, we headed west in the Summer of ’16 for Idaho, Wyoming (Part I, Part II) & Montana (Part I, Part II).

To extend the trip and make sure the kids got extra time between the states, the kids and I left Ryan behind to work a few extra days and we flew into the tiny but gorgeous Jackson, WY, airport and picked up our Chrysler Minivan.  We would explore a portion of Idaho, and then meet up with Ryan as we arrived back in Jackson Hole in time to hike some of the Grand Tetons (more on this in the Wyoming post).

My first tip: I highly recommend making car rental reservations quite a bit in advance, especially if you need something outside of a standard compact. Surprisingly, we ended up with a loaded minivan -DVD player, heated leather seats, the works! Words cannot express how helpful a DVD player turned out to be. Although the scenery was incredible, it just made the long hours in the car go faster with less arguing. Yellowstone Cubs, BBC Yellowstone and Ratatouille were huge hits.

Although we flew into Wyoming, our trip really got started in Idaho Falls (a beautiful 2 hour drive). Idaho Falls was a great home base for a few days exploration of south eastern Idaho. The Residence Inn offered a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen for 2 adults and 3 kids to spread out. Good BBQ is available down the street and a quaint park by the river is accessible right across the parking lot of the hotel. There’s even a running trail up and down both sides of the river and a park at one end to get your miles in even on vacation. Just remember to bring warmer clothes than you think you’ll need if you plan on running in the morning. We were there in mid-June facing low 50s and a stiff wind in the morning and upper 80s by the afternoon. A less expensive, but equally good lodging option is the Best Western Cottonwood just down the river. Check out the Idaho Mountain Trading for any outdoor needs. We picked up some bear spray and much needed warmer clothes for the kids. Thank goodness because Yellowstone mornings were freezing!! (Check out our Wyoming post for more Yellowstone tips.)

Yellowstone Bear World was our first real touristy stop. Twenty minutes outside of Idaho Falls in Rexburg, ID, this was a fabulous find. When we first looked into it, I admit I was a bit skeptical. I was concerned about animal care and exploitation, but honestly, all the various animals seemed to be in good health with wide open, engaging habitats. Obviously, living in the wild would be preferable for most undomesticated animals, but this was a pretty cushy set up.           Definitely set aside some cash for this endeavor. For 5 of us, we spent over $100 driving through the park and taking one of the safari trucks out to feed the bears. Totally worth it though. There were a few tense moments when a bear refused to move from the front of our car and I tried to figure out how I would explain a tire punctured by a bear to the car rental company. Thankfully, the car and the bear made it without any explanations necessary.

Originally, our plan was to visit Bear World in the morning and the Idaho Potato Museum in the afternoon. This would free us up to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument (CMNM) the following day. This is the perfect example of a great plan on paper that just wasn’t going to work for our family. Way too much time would have been spent in the car and the kids would have been a complete disaster. As much as I wanted to explore Craters of the Moon and expose the kids to such an amazing place, it just wasn’t in the cards. We may get back there someday or perhaps the kids will want to make their own trip when they’re grown. I guess that’s what it’s all about. If you do decide to go, it’ll take about 2 hours from Idaho Falls. Arco is the closest city to the park or you can even camp within the park and catch one of the evening ranger talks or early morning ranger-led hikes.

We opted for a swim in the hotel pool and a restful evening watching the Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA Championship.

The following day took us south along Highway 15 toward Blackfoot and the Idaho Potato Museum.  Although this place wasn’t really the best for kids under 8 (IMO) it was only $6 for our family and we got an awesome photo with the giant potato out front:) Thirty minutes was plenty of time to see the highlights and offered a good break for stretching our legs.

Another hour and a half  landed us in Soda Springs. For all you old school Oregon Trail computer game fans, this was an awesome stop!  We grabbed some lunch from Subway and let the kids burn off some energy at the playground across the street. Across the field we were able to see the tip of a geyser erupting. The kids tore off across the field and were able to witness the last vestiges of the Soda Springs Geyser. Although we didn’t have time to wait for it to erupt again, the kids had a great time exploring the geyser area via the well done boardwalk. This was a great introduction to geysers for the kids before we went on to Yellowstone later in the trip.

Although Utah wasn’t a state to check off this trip, we did stay overnight in Garden City just over the Idaho border along Bear Lake. We chose Conestoga Ranch for our first “glamping” experience. Pictures on the website and Trip Advisor led us to believe we were in for quite an amazing experience. The reality was… very different. At $345/nt for the Grand Family Tent, we expected a bit more than a few sticks and makings for s’mores with a view of the condo development sandwiched right next door.  It’s hard to describe the let down my mom and I experienced. Everything was horribly overpriced and completely oversold. We couldn’t even find coffee in the morning until the restaurant was to open after 8am. When the sun gets you up at 5:30am, no coffee until after 8 is pretty ridiculous. And Bear Lake wasn’t exactly across the street. We walked into town for the exercise, but the kids had to walk on the side of the road and go about a mile just to get into the main commercial part of town. Not really conducive to walking to the beach -more on the “beach” later. The kids, thankfully, had a better time than the adults. S’mores and a tent were involved, so they were good.

Bear Lake was a bit of a surprise, too. On the upside, we had at the entire area to ourselves. On the downside, there wasn’t really a beach -more like sea grass/marsh and many tiny pebbles. Once again however the kids had a fabulous time building sand trenches and playing in the freezing water up to their knees.  Moral of this story…

Kids are probably going to have fun if we as parents don’t allow our disappointed expectations to show.

The best part about this brief stop was the tiny breakfast cafe, Crepes and Coffee, serving the most fabulous crepes. Definitely indulge in the Lemon Meringue!

A large reason for our visit to the far southeastern corner of Idaho was the National Oregon/California Trail Center  in Montpelier, ID. The museum is actually built over part of the real trail when it extended from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Although the museum and interactive wagon experience was better appreciated by our 8 yr old, this was a great way to slip in some fun, educational history for everyone.

Next on our itinerary was a trip back to Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons & Yellowstone, and then a drive up to and through Glacier National Park in Montana, but we weren’t done in Idaho…

Recall what I’ve written about Open Jaw Tickets.  We would have burned at least a day and a half returning to Jackson Hole from the west side of Glacier National Park, and Ryan wouldn’t have experienced any of Idaho.  So we planned to leave for home from Boise, and take in some of the northern part of Idaho along the Lewis & Clark Trail on the tail end of the trip.  That led us from western Montana to Kamiah, ID.

The Hearthstone Lodge welcomed us and we couldn’t have had a more perfect B&B with which to completely spoil the kids.  This was the type of B&B that Ryan and I usually stay at on our kid-free getaways.  I guess we’ll just be setting a high bar (a theme for us, you’ll see) for their spouses.

A short walk down the driveway, through a tunnel under the road, and over a rock pile was the Clearwater River, and a most wonderful place for the kids to unwind & play, especially after spending hours in the minivan.

Breakfast was provided at the Hearthstone Bakery & Tea House, a charming and wonderful combination restaurant, bakery and bookstore owned by the friendliest of innkeepers, Harty and Marjorie Schmaehl, just a stone’s throw down the road.  The kids stuffed their faces with waffles, bacon and eggs, then we got some tasty pastries and granola for our drive south.

To break up the drive, we stopped to hike the Goose Creek Falls Trail up Brundage Mtn Rd. It was a downhill climb to the falls, which meant… that’s right… a big uphill on the way back.  This sufficiently wore out the kids for the rest of the way to Boise.

We stayed in a hotel just around the corner from the Boise airport so that we could catch an early flight back home.  It was a convenient and easy way to end our 2016 Western #Gates50States adventure.