1 June - Boise to Silver River

Sunshine! We were very happy with the aircon on the RV overnight as it was 30 degrees C when we set up camp and didn’t really cool down until the early hours of the morning. Sunny and hot again today. Windscreen was bug splat central, so Ros cleaned it while Steve emptied the dump tanks. The bugs were so big we heard an audible splat when they hit.

We drove first to Cabelas – it’s an outdoorsy store that Steve’s dad told us was a must see. It is really huge, and when we walked in the first thing we saw was the “check your gun in at the door” counter. We had a wander around and a good laugh. Seriously, they sell camouflage furniture. Normal looking lounge suites, but in camo material. They go with your deer antler chandeliers. True story! They have an indoor archery range and a gun library, and camouflage gear of every kind you can imagine. Oh, and also camping gear. LOL

We headed out of own along the Boise river.

We spotted an eagle nest on top of a power pole, they build them little platforms to nest on. 

We stopped at Kirkham Hot Springs for a look around. The hot water is just bubbling out of the hillside everywhere. Where we were, the water was too hot to touch, and even downstream a bit it was too hot to put a foot in. 

According to the warning boards the temp ranges from warm to 180 degrees F. It says “do not get in as you risk, scalding, injury and death”. We spotted lots of little critters and got some photos.

We continued into the mountains and the scenery got better and better. We passed through a little town called Stanley, in a flat bottomed valley surrounded by jutting stark granite peaks, softened by snow blankets. There was cattle farming, and log fences, laid in a criss cross fashion. From the top of the Sawtooth ranges the view just took our breath away. In the bottom of the valley was the Salmon River, where the salmon come to spawn after travelling 900 miles up river.

We pulled in for the night on a little road alongside the Silver River. We found a spot under some pine trees, right on the river bank. There was fresh deer spoor on the sand. It was really peaceful. We sat in deck chairs by the river until mozzie o’clock.