Day 4 of 62

In the morning we continued through the Boise National Forest and made our way directly into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Along the way we saw undeveloped hot springs at the side of the road, feeding directly into the river. Of course, we stopped to explore along the hot springs and wade in the water. Sorry, the water was too shallow and too close to the road for skinny dipping pictures. Maybe next time.

The pass through the Sawtooth Mountains reached ~8200 feet, where I once again wondered about the wisdom of wearing shorts and t-shirt, but it warmed up nicely as we came out of the mountains.

As we left this area, we drove through the edges of the Craters of the Moon National Monument on Route 24, but couldn’t find a route that included hiking there and camping somewhere scenic that night, so we kept moving. Oh well. After passing through considerable farmland and a brief bit of freeway, we stopped for the night at Lava Hot Springs, a tiny little town in southeastern Idaho, close to Soda Springs. The campsite was, once again, right next to a bubbling stream…

…and easy walking distance to the developed hot springs for which the town was named. After dinner we went to the springs and soaked late into the night.

I’ve been anxious about getting to Memphis by the 19th, so I’ve been trying to drive a good distance every day, making as much progress as possible. I expect that pace to slow as we cross into Wyoming and see the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. There’s always more to see and do than I feel like we have time for. Oh well, these notes will be a good reminder of what we want to come back and see the next time. Heh. The next time I quite my job and take a year off for traveling.