Idaho: September 9-13, 2022
What's not to love about Idaho? Its rugged landscape is reflected in the state's contours, with the swift Snake River coursing along its western flank, and the crest of the Rocky Mountains and the Bitterroot Mountain Range defining most of the border with Montana to the east. Little did we know when crossing into the panhandle that the forest fire smoke we'd been experiencing in Montana was about to get more intense. In addition to smoke from wildfires that had been burning for weeks in eastern Oregon, there were now several active fires raging through the steep canyons of Idaho's remote central and eastern forests. We came across a "contingency line" near Payette Lake, where helicopters, water storage tanks, and heavy equipment were being deployed from an airfield just off the road. No lives have been lost, but many thousands of acres have been incinerated and some structures have been lost. By the time we got down to Boise, there were Code Red air quality alerts. Oh dear. We hightailed it out of there to explore the hot springs and endless mountains--and to breath more fully! The Craters of the Moon National Monument was a highlight: a 750,000-acre volcanic landscape of lava fields, craters, cinder cones, and lava tubes. In our last couple of days here, we traced a segment of the pioneer country defined by the Oregon Trail. Wyoming, here we come!