September 19, 2020

Idaho Dips & Curves

By roads-rus

Because of its volcanic topography, Idaho has more dips and curves than most states. About the only straight roads in Idaho are its Interstates, Highway 26 west of Idaho Falls, and the road from Jerome to Sun Valley. The most scenic route, for my money, is the one through the Sawtooth National Recreation Area northwest of Ketchum.

You have no choice but to take your time and enjoy the scenery in most of Idaho. For example, if you decide to drive south from Orofino to Boise, plan to take most of a day. Shaped like a giant triangle, Idaho has a truly beautiful center full of high mountains and dipping curves to gape at and experience. Salmon is one of the most isolated towns in the United States, and Highway 93 which drifts south from it along the Salmon River is beyond beautiful if you choose Highway 75 at Challis. Drive cautiously because local wild animals often treat the centers of highways as their midday homes.

If you want to see what the pioneers experienced and get a glimpse of how Idaho was formed, go to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Dress for heat and expect to walk a lot. If you so choose, this is an excellent area to explore this country’s development of atomic power. The facilities are around the town of Arco. One of the more scenic areas of Idaho that is often overlooked and decidedly curvy is altitude-challenging Highway 20 west of Yellowstone National Park. I once saw a farmer harvesting a wheat field prior to a big rain dump along this route that is forever a vivid memory among the best sights among my travel vistas.

Despite recent fires in southwest Washington and northern Oregon that made for hazardous breathing where I live, Idaho remains the only place where I saw helicopters actually dealing with a major forest fire. We fled the scene.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2020 at 8:49 pm and posted in Travel memories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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