Labor Day Weekend in Idaho

Despite our ridiculously busy and stressful schedule this summer, we decided to get outta Dodge for the three day weekend and check out the Sawtooth area of Idaho.  I was sorta on the fence about going, only because of the excessive amount of driving involved, but in the end I am glad we did it.  It was nice to get away and attempt to destress for a bit.

CeCe and Luigi enjoying a nature adventure.

Last Friday, Linda found this nice place called Galena Lodge where you can rent a yurt. The above yurt is the Honey Moon yurt, where we stayed.

At first they gave us the Senate yurt, which was a mistake and we had to switch to the Honey Moon yurt instead.

The Senate yurt was bigger, and was setup for about 4-6 people.

CeCe liked yurt living. Very quiet.

Linda with the dogs in the Senate yurt before we had to change to the Honey Moon yurt.

Luigi is a strange one.

This is the inside of the Honey Moon yurt. It was a little smaller, with no table or sink, but it was in a better spot with more tree coverage making it cooler inside.  Plus it had more windows.

The woods around our yurt.

Trails everywhere.

This is the wood burning stove in our yurt.

And this really nice cast iron propane stove.

Skylight.

Luigi resting.

These little red and green plants.

Sweet Bronco II.

This is Redfish Lake, located a little further up the road from Galena Lodge.

Here you take a boat to a trail head on the other side of the lake.  This is the trailhead.

Me and the pups on the hike. You can see how smokey it was from surrounding wildfires.  No matter what, it was difficult to escape the wildfire smoke the West has been cursed with lately.

Sawteeth.

Chipmunks everywhere.

Linda on the trail. You can see the scale of place pretty good here.

The trail was pretty mild. Some inclines but mostly just moderate switchbacks.

I like when doggies smile.

Chipmunks are cute.

Train set trees.

The trail we took is the Bench Lakes Trail. We read about it in Backpacker magazine.

So we hiked up to the first Bench Lake.

And I got to see an Osprey. I've always wanted to see one.

I got as close as I could.

Yup, it has a fish.

Enormous eyes and wicked talons.

Luigi got a work out.

Here he is relaxing with his momma.

Roots.

Bat ears.

On the way back down...

So much smoke.

This little bridge crossed the stream coming down the mountain.

The water was crystal clear.

Linda dipping her feet.

Waiting for the boat ride back (photo by Linda)

Awesome spot, must return.

Back at Redfish Lodge they had a Labor Day shindig happening.  I ate two pulled pork sandwiches.

A dog and its vintage Suburu.

Smoke obscuring the sunset (photo by Linda)

Yeah, that's the sun. (photo by Linda)

On Monday, we stopped by the Shoshone Falls.

Very pretty.

Me and Luigi before the long drive home.