Cowboy Up!

June 2-10, 2021

 

We have most of June slated to explore southern Idaho; however, on our way to Idaho, we had time to discover a little more of Wyoming! Last June we spent a bit of time in Casper, Wyoming but other than that, all we knew of Wyoming was what one sees from I-80.  From the interstate, one gets the impression that Wyoming is pretty much a wasteland, but that’s simply not the case!  We had seen signs for Curt Gowdy State Park from I-80 (between Cheyenne and Laramie) and found ourselves curious about this park and decided to spend a few days there and check it out.  Curt Gowdy State Park has a couple of reservoirs, with small campgrounds located around the reservoirs.  We stayed in Russell Loop Campground and pretty much had the loop to ourselves during the week.  It filled up on the weekend and we enjoyed watching young families getting out and enjoying this beautiful park.  As we sipped our morning coffee, our neighbor’s daughter (probably a 10 - 11 year old) rode her mountain bike around the loop.  Tucked under her arm was her teddy bear.  I couldn’t help but smile at the simplicity and uninhibited behaviors of youth.  Pondering my childhood memories, I suddenly came to the realization that we are living very much the simple life of doing exactly what we want to do, the biggest decisions being what campgrounds to stay in and what trails to hike or bike!  We are so very blessed to be able to have this great adventure at this stage of our lives!

Curt Gowdy is a fishing and mountain biking destination as well as hiking and just getting away and unwinding.  The park has over 42 miles of trails to explore!  Dick and I set out on Crow Creek Trail to find Hidden Falls.  You pretty much follow Crow Creek all the way; however, along the way the terrain changes greatly!  It’s a very scenic trail, ending at Hidden Falls, a waterfall tucked back into a canyon of 60-foot granite walls.  In order to see the falls, you wade the last several yards between these granite walls.  It is a great way to cool off after a warm hike!  Had we known, we would have dressed a bit differently, but we made do with what we wore!

 

The next morning, we walked down to the camp store and rented a canoe.  The store transported the canoe to the cove for us, where we paddled adjacent to the trail we had hiked the day before.  This time, instead of looking down on Crow Creek, we were looking up at the mountains -- a completely new perspective!  Probably something to remember in life.  Everyone looks at things from different perspectives and each of them have some amount of beauty and truth to them.  

We had been hoping to get in some more hiking before we left Curt Gowdy, but the weather took a turn and we are a bit of fair-weather hikers, so that didn’t happen!  I’d certainly stay here the next time we travel I-80 through Wyoming!  The only reason we are excited to be leaving the Cowboy State is because Brandon and his family will be joining us for our next location!

 

Our first stop in Idaho was Lava Hot Springs.  Brandon had heard good things about it and suggested it to us.  It’s only a couple of hours north of Salt Lake City, which made it possible for his family to join us for a couple of days!  Our home is tiny; however, we can always make room!  Anne came bearing not only this new granddaughter (due 6 weeks from now!) but many yummy treats!  Delicious blueberry muffins, gooey scotcheroos, tasty tuna salad…(Josh taught me that sour cream and onion potato chips are really tasty on a tuna salad sandwich!).  Brandon brought a screened-in canopy for the picnic table, a cot for Josh to sleep on (which fit perfect inside our camper), bedding…  Everyone brought their love of the outdoors and sense of adventure!

Although we just left the Cowboy State, we really got our Cowboy/Cowgirl on in Idaho!  We had no more than landed and gotten set up at Portneuf Bend Campground and we were off for a trail ride.  Lava Horseback Adventures matched each of us to the perfect horse for this ride.  Neither Josh nor Eva had ever been on a trail ride before and they started out pretty nervous.  It wasn’t long before smiles replaced their hesitation!  Josh talked nonstop to his horse (Sue), encouraging her up the mountain path.  Our guide, Andon, was terrific!  He stopped at one point to remove a snake from the path, for which I was so very appreciative!

 

When we first arrived for the trail ride, I mistakenly parked at a neighbor’s home.  It’s funny how mistakes lead to unforgettable moments.  The neighbor happened to be outside, which allowed me to find out exactly where we should be parking, but more importantly, gave Josh and Eva an opportunity to meet Pepe – the neighbor’s orphaned baby skunk!  This random skunk encounter was probably the highlight of the trip for the kids!

Our campground, located just outside Lava Hot Springs, had its pluses and minuses, like most things in life.  While it did have electricity, it did not have water or sewer.  We’ve gotten pretty good at conserving the onboard water and sewer tanks when it is just the two of us, but I was uncertain how that would go when there were six of us.  Thanks to the nearby pit pot, we survived just fine!  I’m also thankful for the mild temperatures, making the pit pot experience tolerable!  The only other down side was that the train tracks were just the across the road from us, and it is a very well-used train track!  This also turned out to be a source of entertainment, comparing the number of engines and cars on the many trains that passed by us!  Aren’t kids great?!! They can turn anything into a point of interest and entertainment! On the plus side was we were there during the week and early in the season.  We pretty much had the campground to ourselves! The Portneuf River was just behind our camper and the kids had tons of fun watching the minnows and fish feeding along the bank.  With no neighbors, we took advantage and spread ourselves out a bit.  The next-door campsite provided the perfect Kubb game field.  We ended with a tie, each team winning a game, so we have yet to play the championship game.  Stay tuned to see if Papa and I can pull off defeating these young whipper snappers!  Evenings were spent around the campfire, singing songs, laughing about the day’s activities (like when a Kubb baton accidently made it into the Portneuf River and made for an exciting adventure of retrieval as the current swept it downstream!), bedtime prayers and S’mores.  

Lava Hot Springs does have hot springs!  Go figure!  The city offers a Hot Spring Pool experience, where there are a series of pools all at varying temperatures.  The pools ranged from 102 degrees to 112 degrees.  We found the 102-degree pool comfortable enough to get into and relax.  After that, it was mostly a toe dipping experience!  The pools were beautifully landscaped and made for a fun mineral bath morning!

 

Lave Hot Springs also offers an Olympic Swimming Complex for one to swim laps, splash and play or slip-slide your way down quite the range of tubes and slides.  A couple of the slides actually crossed over the entrance road!  These had too extreme of vertical drops for any of us to get comfortable with!  I guess you have to save some things for the next time you are in an area!  Josh and I had so much fun playing tag!  It sounds simple enough; however, what a workout that is!  Between the running in the water, and the laughter of the chase/catch, I was completely worn out!  I hardly heard a single train pass by that night!  

 

My personal highlight experience together was the Baker Ranch Wagon Ride.  If you are in the area, I highly recommend making reservations for this!  I knew we were going for a horse drawn wagon ride and would be having dinner as part of the experience, but what Rex and Peggy Baker have put together is truly something special!  Two Belgian horses pulled our wagon 2 ½ miles up the mountain into a fairy tale setting!  There we were greeted with homemade raspberry lemonade in a hidden away shelter house.  The shelter was filled with picnic tables made with timber from their ranch.  A small bridge crossed over a babbling brook to a play area for children and a path that wandered around the area.  A campfire was lit and live music completed the scene.  Every sense was treated to delights!  Before long the dinner bell rang and we all gathered back at the shelter house to enjoy a feast that Peggy and Rex had spent the day preparing.  We had slow cooked BBQ beef, baked Idaho potatoes (where I discovered salsa is a pretty tasty topping), cowboy beans, corn, homemade dinner rolls, lettuce salad, and raspberry topped lemon cake!  Those poor horses had some extra weight to carry us back to our cars.  Good thing they were going downhill for the return trip!

Our last adventure with the Utah Peterson family was hiking the Centennial trail.  The trail begins in downtown Lava Hot Springs (at a pretty steep grade) and connects to an old mining road.  Following the trail, we came to an abandoned mine.  Apparently, this was quite the mining area.  At one time, 22 mines yielded aluminum, copper, gold, lead and magnesite.  Once we arrived at the boarded-up mine, we enjoyed the view and decided along with the abandoned mine, we should abandon the rest of the hike up the mountain.  Once again, the trail turned pretty steep and we had a 34-week pregnant woman with us, along with two kids and us old folks!  I personally have no idea how Anne made it this far up the trail!  I was grateful for the many, sound reasons to turn around!

Tubing down the Portneuf River is an adventure we left the area longing to do on our next trip back.  After the Utah Petersons left, Dick and I wandered around the downtown area and found the river walk.  Several tubes floated past us as we meandered the trail and tubing looks like it would be a very fun thing to do on a hot summer day!  For this trip, we satisfied ourselves with a stop at the ice-cream shop – where the scoops were square!  Kind of a new twist for me!  Our next stop in Idaho will be Massacre Rock State Park.  It's only an hour drive, so our travel day will be a short one!

Up next: The Oregon Trail