Idaho – the land of potatoes

Traveling Idaho, its northern part, was rather unusual, as I had two out of the ordinary travelling companions with me, my 81 and 78 year old grandmothers. A perfectly tuned travellers have visited the state of Idaho while travelling the US. From the beautiful nature, the mountains, lakes, rivers, nice people, great roads and farmlands, the state had even more to offer.

The state is on the western side of the famous Rocky Mountains. It’s the part known for many lakes and evergreen woods. As we’re all lovers of nature and especially mountains, we got to see many things that were of great interest to us. Typical for the states is that the roads are good and wide and they’ll lead you to any and all attractions. As the Yanks say, “comfortable is the best way” so you can reach most of the attractions by car. Both grandmas liked that. After all, they were brave enough to go on such a trip at their age to begin with, it would have been too much if they had to do a lot of mountaineering as well. The unspoiled nature of Idaho, with easy to reach places, was just perfect for us. The many lakes of this quite unknown state are very popular places where the local people come to unwind. Many have their cabins there, where they go to enjoy the days off work. Most of them also own boats that are taken care of especially well. There are sort of floating hangers at piers for the boats, so there’s a roof over it while it’s docked. Even if people have their boat in front of their own house, will have this hanger there. Travelers that come to visit, stop only for a short while and many travel in a typical American fashion – luxury. They usually hire bus size campers, with their own car hooked to it, so they are traveling with their home and car with them. 

The state has more to offer than just mountains and lakes. There are many sand dunes in the desert to the south-west of the state, where visitors can see the Moon crates, as this is the training grounds for American astronauts to practice walking on the Moon.  Naturally the tourist offer is there and you can have many outdoor activities that will suit you, any time of the year. There are 16 winter ski resorts you can enjoy, many well marked paths for Nordic walking with the combined length of around 300 kilometres, and the very popular motor sledge riding in the winter, with over 1100 kilometres of paths. But to make sure the nature wouldn’t suffer due to the pressure of tourism, there are many preserved natural reservations, with very strict rules for protecting the environment. If you like fishing or hunting, you will also find many things to enjoy, as the state has a lot to offer. The couple of dozens natural parks will also tend to the needs of those, who only want to watch or shoot animals with their camera, as there are many opportunities to explore the nature and be on the lookout for its wildlife.

It’s interesting to know that the state is also known as “potato state.” In contrast to all the attraction mentioned above, the state has a lot of farming land as well and the biggest farmland produce of Idaho is the potato. The fertile soil is used for a lot of agriculture, so there are crops as well as potatoes grown, but there’s also a lot of beef being raised in Idaho. The state has a few other names as well, which originate from different languages. The native name would translate into “The Sun comes from behind the mountains.” There isn’t any of that old lifestyle, we see in cowboy movies, left, but there are many memories reminding us of the land of Cowboys and Indians. Most memorable are the old wooden houses in several places, where the people used to mine, cut wood, or trap for furs. When you step into such a place, you get a feeling like you’ve turned back the time and returned to the past. There are some well-preserved old settlements in Idaho that I certainly recommend you to visit. 

It’s a state not really recognisable for many, but well worth a visit. There is no mass tourism there, or any world renowned attractions, but the people who want to get away from stress and hassle of tense civilization, will enjoy it so much more. There’s nature and memories of the past in abundance, so you might recapture some of the spirit of the old cowboy and Indian tales.