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| Idaho Falls River Walk and Japanese Garden, ID | | -
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| | Idaho Falls River Walk and Japanese Garden, ID | | | |
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Idaho Falls River Walk and Japanese Garden, ID
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| Walk / Tour | 3.15 Miles |
145 AEG |
| | Walk / Tour | 3.15 Miles | 1 Hour 38 Mns | | 2.30 mph |
| 145 ft AEG | 16 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | Friday morning I made the 360 mile drive from Great Falls. As always, a beautiful drive, especially through a gorge in the mountains between Cascade and Helena. However, the construction is annoying. They appear to be working on a large project of this road that skirts the Missouri River from time to time. It bends a lot too. I was going to stop at the Starbucks in Helena but this place was full every which way, so I had to settle for McDonald's Sugar Free Latte. The caffeine keeps me going. I fueled up Tonto outside of Butte, tried to see if the truck stop had any Huck It, but it didn't.
I continued to enjoy my drive through some beautiful Montana countryside near Big Hole and south to the Idaho border. The weather would change along the way as well.
I arrived at the motel, got some dinner from Wendy's before heading out on my pre-sunset River Walk, technically the west side of the Temple Loop. It was still a little warm but the breeze kept it comfortable. I was hoping for better light on the falls in the early evening. Well I got better light but the shade from the west side was growing close to the Falls. So I decided to do an up and back rather than the loop. One of the gardens had beautiful blooming flowers so I got distracted by that before moving on. Of course, the distant view to the Temple's steeple was also getting my attention. I always enjoy the art along the way including the elk antler, snake and lure benches.
What's that I hear, it's jazz. I looked west to where the hotels are and walked up the embankment to see a band playing outside, how nice  ! I continued my walk to the bridge that crosses the river. I saw that they have a Snake River ferry which appears to be some sort of house boat. Doesn't look like it really goes too far but I didn't check out the official route. I turned around in the middle of the bridge and headed back. This time I heard some music with surprising lyrics to my ears. I continued south back to the river. I noticed the moon and US flag in the distance but it wasn't lined up quite right to get a great picture. I headed up the embankment to the bridge that crosses the little canal. There are various of these little walkway bridges that take you to the hotels on this side. I stopped and listened to the jazz for a while before heading onward. It was such a pleasure to enjoy; I haven't been around that kind of music in a while.
The shade had indeed crept over to the falls. This time I decided to cross the main road south to the other side where I had read there was a Japanese Garden. The west side looks like it goes further down the river but I headed east across the bridge to the Garden area. It's small but has a lot of bang for the buck. I wandered about for about 20 minutes before heading back up the river to Tonto 3. Surprisingly, my pictures really turned out well; so obviously, this is the better time of day/evening to take this lovely river walk. Next time I will check out the south side of this Greenbelt Loop.
The next morning I headed out and thought I would just go to Beaver UT, but I went all the way to Hatch, also a beautiful drive. I did hit some weather on the crosscut, Highway 20, but otherwise a good drive. On the 30th I headed for Flagstaff with a stop at Jacob's Lake to buy cookies  for me and my neighbors. I had planned a little hike in Flagstaff but the weather was menacing so I continued on; south of Flagstaff I hit that long delay on the freeway and finally arrived home in the late afternoon. My total trip was around 3400 driving miles from July 5-30, but a week of that I did no driving as I was at the ranch and we always took cousin Connie's pickup to toodle around.
Here are the videos:
Idaho River Falls River Walk - Part 1: [ youtube video ]
Idaho River Falls River and Japanese Garden Walk - Part 2: [ youtube video ]
The drives I included geographic IDs:
Drive from Glacier Park to Butte: [ youtube video ]
Butte to the Idaho border: [ youtube video ]
Idaho border to Brigham City: [ youtube video ]
Brigham City to Flagstaff: [ youtube video ] |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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