In another jam packed day of adventure, we spent most of the day in or near various bodies of water. Shortly after sunrise, we hiked to Box Canyon. Something that I really wanted to do on this trip was to experience the blue springs of Idaho. My plan was to paddle board in the spring-fed Snake River, but there were too many complications with that. Luckily for us, Ian found the most perfect alternative that not only allowed us to see the blue springs, but actually swim right in them! How amazing. After a fairly easy descent into Box Canyon, we saw a beautiful waterfall. After following the trail through a maze of bushes where we felt like we were in the Tri-Wizard Cup Competition in Harry Potter - I figured that the path could close up behind us and we would be lost forever - but, instead, we ended up at a beach where the current was calm enough for us to swim. On the way I had a jump scare with a lizard on the trail that nearly made me pee my pants - I was on the watch for rattlesnakes not lizards- but luckily, we made it to the end in one piece. The water was icy cold and refreshing; everybody was hot enough to get in and swim around even though our skin kind of went numb. Most of us even put our heads underwater, which was enough to steal all your breath. It was pretty incredible. We had the whole canyon all to ourselves. The hike out was obviously mostly uphill, but we made it. We saw a flock of great egrets, a cool trout farm, and managed to avoid the fire ants which were all over the trail in huge colonies. We also saw more marmots and another bull snake, though this one wasn’t a surprise and I managed to avoid it completely . The kids and Ian thought it was pretty cool.
Following our adventures at Box Canyon, we retraced yesterday’s drive through Shoshone back to a fishing pond that had very recently been stocked with trout. Along the shore, though accompanied by many fly fishermen who were teaching local school children how to fish on a school field trip, we cast our lines in the water and had pretty good success. Admittedly not all of us fished as some of us chose to read our books and take a short nap. So Ian takes most of the credit for this trout haul.
Our third stop of the day was yet another trout pond to do (you guessed it) more fishing. Alistair and Liam were the stars of the show this time. Alistair caught three trout in the pond. And Liam brought in two. Seamus was the quickest out of the gate with the first catch, probably 30 seconds after casting his line in the water. We were lucky to (almost) catch our limit of trout today and have at least two dinners worth of fish. Tonight’s supper will include freshly caught pan fried trout with mushrooms and zucchini, warmed up canned southern style sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob. What a feast!
Once we were all fished out, it was time to head to our campsite for the night. We’re heading back up into the mountains - this time to the Sawtooth mountain range. These mountains are comparable to the Grand Teton mountains in beauty and snow capped-ness though with way fewer people around. We are camping at the Sawtooth Redfish Outlet campground site number five and pulled in right at dinner time. We had time to do a quick explore before getting the trout in the pan. Our campsite is very close walking distance to a beautiful snowcapped mountain ringed lake with bright blue water. It looks perfect for paddle boarding - this might be part of tomorrow’s adventure.
It has been a wonderful and very busy Thursday. We’re looking forward to a good sleep tonight and experiencing some more Idaho springs adventures tomorrow (hopefully some hot springs this time)!
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