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Grand Tour of Idaho, Part 3
July 1, 2021
Day 4 of our Idaho counties tour had us doing a drive by of the capitol building in Boise before heading off to to new to us places. I was happy to see Pride banners on the light poles; Ada County where Boise is has a higher percentage of Democratic party voters than most. Coincidence that they were visibly celebrating Pride? I think not.
Our next stop was Gem County, home of Freezeout Hill, the marker for which did not explain the name at all but instead talked about the Oregon Trail and a gang of horse thieves. We had lunch in Payette County and dessert in Washington County, specifically in Weiser. We were too early for the huge fiddlers festival held there each summer, so no crowds of milling tourists obstructed my view of the interesting buildings downtown, like the Myrtle Lodge No. 26, built for the Knights of Pythias, an organization my maternal great grandfather belonged to in Wisconsin.
After leaving Weiser, we took a very brief dip into Oregon, because it was right there. Soon enough we were back in Idaho, stopping at the rest area and welcome center to pick up more travel brochures. Rather than take the interstate to our last destination for the day, we chose the scenic route. We did the Snake River Canyon Scenic Byway, which took us through farm and vineyard areas for quite some time before we got anywhere near the river (which was not especially canyon-y at any point we saw). Definitely a different experience than whizzing through on the freeway.
We arrived at our hotel in Mountain Home in time to see the sun set over the truck stop across the street.
Day 4 photos are here.