“Push your legs and don’t pull your hands!” My instructor encouraged me to do so. Sawtooth Mountain GuidesMatt Scrivner: I’d already stretched over impassable stone humps and climbed a natural rock staircase. Now, I was clinging to a 40-foot-high rope and staring up at the cliff for any kind of purchase. The final climb would not happen. I fell back down.
I’m a mid-aged woman with two artificial humps, and this was my very first time rock climbing. Scrivner told me, “You should feel proud.” “Now, look around at the scenery.” Ancient formations from southern Idaho can be seen scattered across the scrublands. Castle Rocks State Park In the afternoon sunlight, they glistened.
After Scrivner had taken me to the nearby petroglyphs I went on a drive with a local ranger named Sophia Bates who showed me a rock art of a completely different kind. “From 1843-1882,” she told me, “over a half-million people traveled through here during this time.” California Trail”—a wagon train route from Missouri to the Golden State. A depot was located right here amongst the outcroppings. Inscribed on the granite were the names pioneers, including Minnie Wright and A. Freeman.
Bates also hosted me at Rock Wren HideawayShe owns a glamping campsite with her husband Derek just outside of the park. The bathroom in the safari tent was an outhouse. It was cold and I was freezing. But the large white safari tent had beanbags for comfort, leather chairs and a bed. I took one final look at the bright stars before tucking myself under a pile of blankets.
Idaho charmed me to no end. It was the only Lower 48 state I had not visited until last summer. It’s hard to say what took me so much time. Maybe it was the picture of the Idaho town that I saw in Napoleon Dynamite The stereotype that potatoes is the only thing Idaho can claim to be famous for. I decided to take a road trip for a week, driving southwards from the eastern border. Boise350 miles west. The trip was a chance to learn about the rich history of the state, including the Native Americans that created the petroglyphs in Castle Rocks, the pioneers who migrated west in the 19th Century, and some who stayed to establish farms on the aquifer fed soils of Idaho, as well as the recent immigrants who have transformed Boise’s culture.
My journey began in Freedom. It was founded in 1879 as a refuge for Mormons who fled arrests due to polygamy. The Mormons would enter Idaho when the police arrived. Wyoming. A billboard-size hand-painted map at a turnout on State Highway 34 numbered the attractions along the National Pioneer Historic Byway—114 scenic miles of the Mormons’ route from UtahThe intersection of the. Oregon Trail. There were still ruts in the ground from wagon wheels that had been pressed into the ground.
My first destination was Grays Lake National Wildlife RefugeIt is North America’s biggest hardstem marsh, and the largest breeding population of Sandhill Cranes in the world. As they scuttled across the prairie, I gazed through binoculars. Their red brows slanting towards sharp black beaks were a sight to behold. Then, I came upon the Henry StoreEstablished in 1897. The store was full of historical oddities, including Idaho’s oldest barrister chair and portraits of Buffalo Bill, Abraham Lincoln and Parker guns. There was also a beer licence from 1934 – the year that Prohibition ended. Whitney Engeler convinced me to buy dime-store candies like Gold Mine Nugget Bubble Gum and Owyhee Idaho Spud – a marshmallow chocolate and coconut confection that was marketed as The Candy Bar That Made Idaho Famous.
