State Parks special! Five fall hikes in SW Idaho - Bruneau Dunes, Dry Creek and more

On a clear day, you can see a long ways across the Snake River Plain from the top of Bruneau Dunes 

Hi all,

Sure nice to get some moisture today, we certainly need it, but a continued unstable weather pattern will bring us more moisture on Saturday as well. That leaves Friday and Sunday as the best days to get outside and play this weekend.

I gave a presentation on my favorite fall/winter hikes close to home last night at Boise REI, so it seemed like a good idea to share a few of those gems with you for my outdoor tip of the week.

I touched on 25+ hikes from my Boise Trail Guide and Owyhee Canyonlands guides, so that's WAY too much info. to share here, so I'll shake the dice and deliver five of them ... suitable for this weekend:

• Bruneau Dunes State Park, south of Mountain Home - Take the kids and go play in the sand. Take your camping stuff if you're so included (check on space with IDPR). Easy to do in a day trip or overnight. Bruneau Dunes has a 470-foot high sandy mountain inside the park. Take a hike on the ridge of the dune. People also try to ski and snowboard the dunes. It's always a cool place to explore. 

  

  These were our GPS tracks of doing a loop around the dunes (light green line)

• Eagle Island State Park in west Eagle - Take a 5-mile hike in the park to tour both channels of the Boise River. The trails in the park are generally well-drained with gravel along the river. Hiking time: 2 hours; Vertical rise: 55 feet (essentially flat). Rated: Easy. Make sure you buy one of those $10 annual park passes with your vehicle registration so you have a free pass to get into any state parks in Idaho. Well worth it!! 

 

• Huckleberry Trail in Ponderosa State Park - If you happen to be in McCall, the "Huck" is especially colorful right now. Wendy and I did the loop 2 weeks ago, and it was really starting to light up! It's about 3.5 miles to do the loop. 400 feet of vertical gain. Hiking time: 2 hours. Biking time is 45 minutes to 1+ hours, depending on your speed. The trail has lots of rocks and roots, but the views are wonderful -- you look out on Payette Lake as you tour of the peninsula. You can climb to the top of Osprey Point at the mid-point for a nice overview of Payette Lake and the surrounding mountains. Do this hike on Sunday. The air will be crisp in McCall -- a high of 52 is forecast. 

  

  Wendy enjoyed the fall colors on the Huckleberry Trail in Ponderosa State Park. 

• Charcoal Gulch, Idaho City - Take a drive to Idaho City and go for a nice colorful hike on the Charcoal Gulch Trail, just on the outskirts of town. Find the trail by the Idaho City Airport (ever been there?) on the south side of town. There's a little trailhead on the north side of the airport. Take the Buena Vista Trail along the edge of the mountain, and then you'll see the junction for Charcoal Gulch. There are aspens and pines along the way, plus a small creek.  

  

  Charcoal Gulch Trail weaves through ponderosa pine trees and aspens near Idaho City. (Courtesy Visit Idaho) 

• Dry Creek out and back, Boise Foothills - Friday afternoon or Sunday should be a good day to go for a walk on Dry Creek. The colors should be getting good up there, too! The trailhead is off of Bogus Basin Road, several miles up from Boise, on the right side, as the road begins a series of hairpin switchbacks. You'll see other cars at the trailhead. It's a big day to hike to the top of the Boise Ridge via Dry Creek (7.5 miles, 2000+ vertical feet), so just take your time and go as far as you want.

  

  Steve rides one of the nice bridges across the Dry Creek
  Trail in the upper Boise Foothills. 

• Bonus #6: Head up to Bogus Bogus, ride the chairlift and go for a bike ride or hike from the top of Deer Point lift. I saw that they are running the lifts on Saturdays and Sundays through October. The promotion this weekend is that if parents buy their college student a season pass ($160), the whole family gets to ride the chairlift for free.   

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A few notes:

• Our friends at the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands wanted me to share that they have raised enough money to pay for restoring the Plantation pedestrian bridge on the Boise River Greenbelt. It may be installed by next spring! 
• The Idaho Whitewater Association will be doing a litter pickup project along the Payette River on Saturday. See Facebook event for more information.
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Three kid-friendly pre-winter hikes - Browns Canyon, Eagle Island Park, Polecat Gulch

Browns Canyon in the winter sun ... not much light in the canyon! 

We took Huck to Browns Canyon when he was a puppy

Drew did great on the Browns Canyon hike 

Redrock canyon, sagebrush and aspens 

Hmmm, where do we go now? 

Hiking the two-track back to the trailhead out in the open Owyhee country

Hi all,

These semi-cloudy cold days with temperatures in the low 40s don't seem all that appealing for outdoor recreation -- at least on the surface. But actually, once you get moving on a hike, a run or a bike ride, you'll warm up inside and enjoy your outing.

It is important to dress properly in layers and bring a warm hat and gloves/mittens so you stay comfortable, and peel layers as necessary as you warm up inside.

For this week's outdoor tip, I'm recommending three kid-friendly hikes -- Brown's Canyon in the Owyhees, Eagle Island State Park and Polecat Gulch in the Boise Foothills. Get the kids dressed up in appropriate clothes and take them out to explore the great outdoors in SW Idaho. Pack a lunch, snacks and bring plenty of water.

Remember that there's a "Cold Moon," a full moon that's supposed to appear 10%+ larger than normal this weekend, peaking on Saturday night/Sunday morning. It's supposed to appear as a full moon three days in a row -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That'll be a treat or maybe the coyotes will make too much noise and keep you up all night ...

For these outings, try to get out on Friday or Saturday morning. That's when the weather will be best. There's a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday afternoon and Sunday in the valley. Just FYI. Most of these trips would be doable with a good rain coat.

1. Brown's Canyon Overland Tour, Owyhee Front, near Oreana. Distance: 5.2 miles. Difficulty: Moderate. Travel time: 3+ hours. This is an interesting hike in the sagebrush and rocks of the Owyhee Front until you come across Brown's Canyon, a hidden jewel. In my Owyhee Canyonlands guidebook, I detail a hike inside the slot canyons of Brown's Canyon, and a hike that goes around the slot canyon (thereby avoiding cold, deep-water pools) but you can still see it from above.

How to get there: Take I-84 East to Simco Road. Turn south on the highway to Grand View. Turn right on Idaho 78 in Grandview and head for the tiny old town of Oreana. There's a sign on the highway for a left-hand turn into town near MP 43. Make a note of your odometer. Drive down the hill straight into town, go past the old church (2.25 miles from the highway) and go straight on the Oreana Loop Road until it takes a hard left. Make the corner and take an immediate right on Alder Creek Road. Follow the bumpy dirt road six miles to a signed right-hand turnoff for BLM Road 700. Proceed down the grade to an old corral at a two-way junction. Park. The hike starts here.

The Hike: Go west on BLM Road 700 and climb a moderate grade over to a bluff that overlooks Browns Canyon. At mile 1.4, bear right on a two-track and drop down to the Browns Creek draw. This is a pretty area that's full of shrubs and aspens. The first slot canyon with blondish rock begins at mile 1.7. Cross over to the left side of the draw, as you go downstream, and walk overland through the blond rocks staying above the canyon. You'll break out into an open sage flat at mile 2.0. When the next slot canyon begins, climb up the slope to the left until you reach the top of the rim, and then hike along the rim as close as you feel comfortable to check out the slot canyon as you move along. In a half mile, the canyon breaks open by a draw, and you'll need to lose elevation. Hike into the bottom of the gully and climb back on top of the rim. There's a nice overlook when you reach the top again at mile 3. Continue on the left side of the canyon until you come to the dirt road crossing, and then turn right onto the dirt road at mile 3.6.  Follow the road to mile 4.0 at a two-way junction. Turn right again at a fence gate, and follow the two-track road (BLM Road #710)  back to the trailhead. Feel free to explore Antelope Springs along the way. It's another tight canyon.  

2. Eagle Island State Park - There's a nice 5-mile hike in the park that I detailed in Boise Trail Guide: 90 Hiking and Running Routes Close to Home. This particular hike tours both channels of the Boise River while also cruising around the outskirts of the park. You could easily do a shorter route in the park by just touring the North Channel of the Boise River. Start from the parking area by the pond and circumnavigate the park. I did the hike in a counter-clockwise direction. See the GPS tracks on the map below.

Getting there: Take State Street west of Eagle Road to a signed turnoff for Eagle Island State Park. There is a park entrance fee unless you have a statewide season pass via your vehicle registration. I always buy that pass ... it's a real bargain!

3. Polecat Gulch - Hike a 3-mile loop around Polecat Gulch in the NW Foothills of Boise. The loop takes about 1.5 hours, depending on walking speed. The hike described takes you on a tour of the finger ridges on the Polecat Loop Trail in sage and grassland habitat. You might see mule deer on this hike or even the albino deer! I rate this hike easy to moderate. Trailhead is at the north end of N. Collister, off of Hill Road. Go north on Collister to the trailhead parking area and rest room at the end of the road.

Hike up the main Polecat trail up the bottom of the draw to Quick Draw Trail, climb Quick Draw to the Doe Ridge trail. Go to the top of Doe Ridge (enjoy the views of NW Boise) and follow that trail over to the north side of the Polecat Trail complex. Turn right on to the Polecat Loop trail above the Cartwright Road trailhead and follow the loop trail along a steep hillside above the Terteling Ranch and Cartwright Road. Follow the trail as it wraps around the mountain and then drops back to the Quick Draw-Polecat junction. Go left or down-canyon on the Polecat Trail to return to the trailhead.

Have a great weekend! - SS