Lowman, ID

Friday, October 2

It’s Friday! Oh. it’s Friday…

For us, the arrival of Friday means Andi and I need to plan ahead. Camping is harder to come by on the weekends as there are more people out & about. Trailheads are busier and parking our vehicle (the RV) is harder to do. Friday also means the last day of school for the week for Tory and Aden. They’ve already learned how good weekends feel when they can wake up, lounge around in the jammies and watch their iPads upon waking. Today, Tory finished her final Grade 3 work in Math and officially graduated to Fourth Grade. She is pretty proud!

Today, our plan is to leave the McCall/Cascade area and travel to the Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho. Andi and I visited this area in 2017 and absolutely fell in love with it. It’s a trip we still talk about today as one of our best. So, after we finished school this morning, we left Water’s Edge RV Park in Cascade, Idaho and drove toward the Sawtooth Mountains. Fortunately, we didn’t have any trouble going through the construction in the town of Smith’s Ferry this time. Around here, Fridays mean the two-lane road is open through the weekend.

Andi and I were surprised to see so much haze in the air on our drive this morning. We haven’t noticed the air quality being poor, but there is definitely smoke in the air due to the wildfires on the West Coast. The Sawtooths in the distance were barely visible.

We drove for about an hour and a half, then decided to stop for a soak in Kirkham Hot Springs. Kirkham Hot Springs is one of many naturally-occurring hot springs along Highway 21 in Idaho. There are several geothermal pools and steaming waterfalls here nestled along the Payette River. We easily found a parking spot, put on our swimming suits, and then set off for a short hike down to the hot springs.

There were a few other people soaking in the hot springs already, but plenty of separate pools to go around for everyone. Andi found one that was the perfect temperature for both the kids and us to enjoy. There is something so cool about natural hot springs — sitting in a clear shallow river, surrounded by rocks, with steaming hot water bubbling up from underneath the Earth’s surface. The scenery at Kirkman was beautiful surrounding by rugged rocks and mountains.

After a 30-minute soak, we changed out of our swimming suits and continued driving along the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway to find a campsite for the night. Andi had his eyes on Bonneville Campground which is also near another hot springs in the area. Fortunately for us, Bonneville had several campsites open for the night and it was free since its off-season. Nice! Denny, Bonneville’s campground host who must be in his 70’s, was super friendly and chatted Andi up for over an hour. He shared all kinds of great tips (and a few horror stories) about the area. Once he learned we had kids, he insisted we take the double-wide camping site with direct access to a sandy beach by the river. In return for this primo spot, his only request was the kids pick up a few pieces of trash the previous campers had left behind. DONE.

After we parked the RV in our new spot, the four of us went for a short walk by the river and then put on our swimming suits for the second time today to check out Bonneville Hot Springs. Tory and I felt a little awkward walking through the campground without pants, but no one there seemed to mind.

Like Kirkham, the Bonneville Hot Springs were gorgeous surrounded by coniferous trees and mountains. I loved watching the steam billow out from the rocks, indicating just how hot the water is trickling from the Earth. You definitely wouldn’t want to touch it directly! Fortunately, visitors before us created small soaking pools made from rocks, mixing just the right amount of hot geothermal water with icy, cold water from the nearby Payette River. Together, the two temperatures made the perfect “hot tubs” to sit and soak.

There were only four other people at the hot springs when we arrived, and two people left within minutes after we arrived. No one seemed to mind that we had Tory and Aden with us which was great. Andi, Tory, Aden and I found a warm pool to sit in and just enjoyed the moment. Not a bad way to spend a Friday evening!

About 30 minutes later, a man named Doug arrived. He struck up a conversation with Andi who’s always happy chatting with another traveler. Tory and I had to move to another pool as we found it hard to hold a conversation with a stranger standing before us in his underwear! Doug thought the water was too cool, so he added a few rocks to block some of the water coming in from the Payette River. Within minutes the pools got really hot — too hot for the kids to enjoy — so the four of us decided to get out & make our way back to the RV for dinner. Amazing the difference one or two rocks make in letting in and/or blocking out cold water in the hot springs!

The next morning, Andi and Tory woke up early to try their hand fishing for trout in the Payette River, just a few feet away from our campsite. At 7:00am, it was a chilly 30 degrees outside with frost on the ground. Amazing the temperature degree swings from morning to noon to evening this time of year in Idaho. Andi and Tory didn’t catch any fish, but they had fun trying.