Yesterday was my 2 month anniversary of moving to Idaho. Some days it feels like I’ve been here forever and other days it feels like I just moved yesterday. I think you can tell that I’ve been making the most of my time here….Idaho has made quite the weekend warriors out of my family. Yesterday we celebrated with a breathtaking day trip to Shoshone Falls (with a new friend)!

Who knew that two hours through farmland and fields in the middle of absolutely nowhere would suddenly drop down to this – a massive canyon hiding these gorgeous waterfalls. You’d never expect it!

100 miles outside of Boise, after a loooooong stretch of open land, is the Snake River. It runs through a deep dark canyon with dozens of little waterfalls spilling out the sides. The Perine Bridge  crosses the canyon. It’s a popular base jumping spot, but the winds were too strong yesterday for jumping. Oh darn ;) 

On Sunday morning, my parents picked me up to drive out to Twin Falls for our day trip. I invited Shelby, a friend I met here in Idaho through an elite running team, She is equally as obsessed with long distance running, coffee, country music, and taking pictures as I am. We’ve run probably a total of 100 miles together already so we became fast friends!

The day before, Shelby and I headed out for our long run along the Boise River Greenbelt. Since my longest run of the year hovered around 10 miles, I didn’t intend to finish all 14 miles with her. I planned to drop off after 11-12 and stretch while she covered another couple of miles. But she talked me into running a little farther and my body felt good so I went for it. We ran 14 miles at a 7:35 average mile pace and were on a runner’s high for the rest of the afternoon!

Needless to say, Sunday was a welcomed rest day and the most exercise we got was a leisure walk around the rim of the canyon. With many stops for photos!

There is a paved pathway along the rim, and we loved looking down on the paddle boarders and kayakers in the river. Next time, I would love to kayak in there. You would feel so tiny in that tall canyon. One chain link fence had started the “love locks” that have become so popular in touristy cities like Paris and New York. It’s got a little catching up to do ;)

The Shoshone Falls is about a 6 mile drive from the Perine Bridge and visitor center, so we decided to stop in town for iced coffees first. We ended up at the super cute place called Java and sat inside for a while.

In true vacation mode, we were too tempted by the homemade bakery counter and ordered a massive Morning Muffin that was so full of seeds, nuts, millet and citrus zest. The four of us split it and hope we can find a recipe to remake at home.

We headed off to the main event after our little sugar and caffeine boost, driving another six miles through rural farm land. We were wondering “how the heck is there going to be a massive waterfall out here?”

And then BOOM.

Shoshone Falls is one of the largest natural waterfalls in the United States. It drops 212 feet into the Snake River, nicknamed the “Niagara of the West.” This is pretty late in the year, and apparently it is most powerful around May and June. But the view was stunning and we enjoyed the picnic lunch we packed with this view.

Summer fruit is THE BEST. I packed us a cooler with fresh pineapple, grapes and apples, some veggie & hummus sandwiches, and rice crisps. We laid out some beach towels on the grass and totally relaxed for an hour. That’s an easy thing to do in Idaho because it’s so quiet and peaceful.

(Until a ten-year old with a sling shot comes up trying to shoot a squirrel behind you…..)

Before we headed back to town, we stopped at Dierkes Lake. It was pretty crowded for how in-the-middle-of-nowhere it was. We were a little too full from lunch and nervous about “river monsters” to jump in yesterday. Shelby relocated to Idaho from California too with her husband and daughters, and we were saying the only thing we miss about the golden state is the beach. But I honestly like this lake and river life better. So we are perfectly happy here :)

Happy 2 months Idahoversary!