A Mountain Aventure

My dad recently told me about a hidden waterfall up in the mountains between Crouch and Boiling Springs. That whole area up there is full of memories from my childhood......my grandparents on my dad's side built a cabin up above Crouch. I remember plenty of summers up there, watching them build this cabin with their own hands. I also spent a lot of my childhood back in Boiling Springs, camping with my family at the Forest Service cabin that sat right between the hot springs and the river. I could spend the next 14 paragraphs reliving those memories for you all, but I did that today with my brother on the ride up and back. He's moving to Montana for a job and words cannot describe how much I'm going to miss him. Today was such a great experience, to ride along with him to not only get pictures of this waterfall, but to revisit a place I know holds many, many fond memories for us both.

After we turned off at Banks, we came to The Staircase....a portion of the Payette river that is sought out by many rafters and kayakers (is that right?). We just happened to pull over right as three kayakers were making their way towards The Staircase. I wish I had time to put on the big lens, but I grabbed my camera and ran for the bank of the river just in time. The pictures aren't the great simply because I didn't have time to stop and adjust my settings, but still pretty cool to watch these guys in such a brave moment.

The waterfall......I feel like my pictures don't even do this thing justice. We were clear at the top of a summit, so I bet this water fell for a couple hundred feet, and the roar was just deafening. The pictures make it look like a little stream, but that's far from accurate. This water was just pounding down the mountain.

The cabin, back in at Boiling Springs. It's a Forest Service cabin - I checked out the pricing last night and I'm pretty sure we will be taking the kids here for many vacations. It's dirt cheap to rent these cabins, and with it being so close to Boise, it's a win-win. There were people up in the hot springs, so we didn't get to go over and check those out. But we did scout out the cabin. It's furnished now, has propane for a fridge and stove/oven, and has a brand new fence around a big chunk of the property.  They also moved the fire pit away from the river and closer to the cabin.

 With my brother moving to Montana in a matter of days, it was so nice to take this little day trip with him. We had great conversation the entire time, with lots of laughs and old stories.