My son Quinn enjoys a moment with a cow elk on the Points Ranch sleigh ride.
Hi all,
We've had a very snowy start to the winter of 2022-23, and so the full slate of outdoor snow activities are available to enjoy, looking ahead to January and February of 2023.
One thing you could plan with your immediate family or a group of friends is an elk-viewing sleigh ride with Idaho Sleigh Rides in Garden Valley or the Points Ranch near Donnelly.
There's plenty of snow on the ground, which has driven the elk to lower elevations for their winter range. Both sleigh rides provide ample opportunities to see elk while enjoying the broader scenery. Both will be operating 7 days a week through the rest of the winter. Reservations are required.
Get a group of friends together and reserve a trip!
The Points Ranch sleigh ridetakes about 1 hour. They feed the elk while they take folks on the horse-drawn sleigh ride. The elk are watching and waiting for you to come by with more alfalfa hay ... and you'll have very up-close-and-personal encounters with them!
I took my whole family on the Points Ranch sleigh ride, and they all loved it! My step-daughter Elena actually got kissed by an elk while it was feeding on a hay bale in the sleigh, and she thought that was quite memorable!
The Points Ranch is located south of Donnelly next to ID 55. They load people on the sleighon an hourly basis, and you go on a very slow loop through a big group of elk. Call 208-325-8783 to make a reservation and inquire about rates.
In Garden Valley, Idaho Sleigh Rides offers a great variety of trips, from a simple sleigh ride, to a sleigh ride and lunch, to a Dutch oven dinner ride with live music. They have a small sleigh for groups of four, and a larger sleigh that fits 12 people. The rides last about 45 minutes and take you on a tour of some large snowy meadows and big groups of elk in Garden Valley, with the mountains lording above.
"We see the elk every day," says Darl Allred of Idaho Sleigh Rides.
Like I said, get a group of friends together and reserve a trip!
In Sun Valley, you can go on a sleigh ride during the day or do a deluxe dinner ride to Trail Creek Cabin. Both experiences would be great, but believe me, the dinner ride to Trail Creek Cabin would be memorable! Reservations required.
Unfortunately, Bogus Creek Outfitters is no longer in business, so if you live in the Treasure Valley, you'll need to travel to enjoy a sleigh ride. It's worth going up to the mountains to enjoy the beautiful scenery and ensure there's plenty of snow for the trip!
No matter where you go, be sure to dress warm for the sleigh ride trip. That means full-on winter gear -- long underwear, warm sweater, snow pants or a snowmobile suit, warm boots, warm winter hat and warm mittens or gloves. Bring a thermos of hot coffee or cocoa perhaps?
Enjoy! - SS
P.S. We have had a phenomenal series of winter storms pass through Idaho's mountains since Nov. 1. Suffice to say that the snow conditions are outstanding everywhere for sleigh rides and any other type of winter activity right now. See my daily snow forecasts about snow conditions at Idaho's ski resorts on opensnow.com.
Great blue heron along the Boise River (courtesy Ken Miracle)
Juvenile bald eagle on the Boise River (courtesy Ken Miracle)
Merganser on the Boise River (Courtesy Ken Miracle)
Kingfisher (Courtesy Ken Miracle)
Hi all,
To me, it's always a treat to see birds and wildlife as part of an outdoor recreation outing. But every once in a while, I like to make seeing birds or wildlife the central focus of an outdoor adventure. One of my favorite winter bird walks in Boise is along the Boise River, particularly when it's colder outside, with temperatures below freezing. My main objective is to see bald eagles perching on the top of cottonwood trees. But you'll also see a variety of ducks, geese, kingfishers, herons and songbirds. The variety of ducks can be pretty darn cool. I especially like to see the colorful wood ducks.
About 15-20 bald eagles typically winter along the Boise River urban corridor, between Lucky Peak and Eagle. If you're lucky, you'll see an eagle swoop down to the river to catch a trout or whitefish breakfast with its talons. And that's a beautiful thing to behold. Nature in action.
This week, my outdoor tip is to take a moment to look for birds and learn about them. Consider starting a bird list! According to an article in Audubon, all you need is a pair of binoculars and a basic field guide to birds to get started in birding. I've recently learned about another way you could get into birding -- attend the Hagerman Bird Festival, Feb. 12-14. The Festival provides guided outings to see particular types of birds, such as night walks to see owls and boat tours to see waterfowl on the Snake River. I wrote about the festival for Southern Idaho Tourism, and I thought my readers on Stueby's Outdoor Journal would want to know about it, too.
Maybe
you've been wanting to become a "birder" -- a person who goes out to
look at birds, learns how to identify them and keeps a list -- or perhaps participate
in a bird-watching outing and see if you like it.
The
upcoming Hagerman Birding Festival, scheduled for Feb. 12-14, is a perfect
event to learn how to get started. Pre-registration
is open for the event, which is limited to the first 150 people who sign up.
There are classroom sessions where you learn how to identify different kinds of
birds and field trips with birding experts. That's where the rubber hits the
road. The multiday event costs $80 for adults and $25 for children 16 and
younger, including food and field trips.
Inspiration. Usually, a person's interest in
birding is started by an inspirational moment. For me, it was watching bald
eagles swoop down and catch crimson kokanee in West Glacier, Montana. Even
since then, I've always been interested in birds of prey in particular. I must
have taken 300 photos of eagles catching fish on that snowy day in December.
We learn
in the Twin
Falls Times-News that Burley High
School senior Joseph DeTemple is a budding birder after earning a Boy Scout
merit badge through identifying eight species of birds. He's working with
veteran birder Wallace Keck, superintendent of City of Rocks National Reserve
and Castle Rocks State Park, to learn about birding. DeTemple already has
identified more than 130 species. He's off and running!
Sharp-shinned hawk at the City of Rocks (Courtesy Wallace Keck)
Keck,
whose life list hovers near 460 species, was inspired by taking an ornithology
class in college at Arkansas State University. Campus was near a number of
mountains and rivers that made birding fun and exciting for Keck, who
frequently blogs
about his birding adventures. Keck recently blogged about "The Big
Year" in which he hopes to add more species to his life list and surpass
500 species.
So how
about making 2016 a year in which you start birding? The greater Southern Idaho
region is a wonderful place to see birds -- from lots of waterfowl, bald
eagles, and great blue herons in the Hagerman area along the Snake River, to more
waterfowl at Lake
Walcott State Park and Minidoka
National Wildlife Refuge, songbirds at City of Rocks National Reserve and
a variety of species at The Nature Conservancy's Silver
Creek Preserve near Picabo. With every stop, you'll pick up more species.
At City
of Rocks, you can see a variety of songbirds such as pinyon jays and scrub jays
and a variety of other birds surrounding the feeders they have at the Visitor
Center, plus Keck photographed a beautiful Cooper's hawk perched in a tree
nearby, looking for a morning meal.
Christine
Gertschen, the organizer of the Hagerman Bird Festival this year, lives in
Hagerman and enjoys seeing all the birds in that area. "The birds come
here because of the open water on the Snake River," she says. "Last
night, I was watching a pair of great-horned owls. Birding is just crazy around
here in the winter ... it's definitely a hot spot."
How to get started? According to an article in Audubon, all you need
is a pair of binoculars and a basic field guide to birds. Perhaps a small
pocket notebook would be handy for noting species. My partner Wendy Wilson is
an expert birder, and she likes to use the Sibley
Field Guide to Birds of Western North America for identifying birds. That
guide is very well-done and very detailed. But there are quite a few available.
Audubon
suggests thinking about a particular species that you'd like to identify, and
then go out and find it. The Hagerman Birding Festival would be a perfect way
to learn how to get started birding from the experts and go out in the field
and start your own bird list.
If you
plan to be visiting from out of town, look for lodging deals here at the Southern Idaho
Tourism web site.
Another resource for learning about birds is to join the Idaho Birding Facebook page. You'll see a lot of birders and photographers posting close up and spectacular bird pics on the page. And you can learn tips about identifying a particular species.
Bucktail Trail is one of the additions made possible by the foothills open space levy.
Where else can you get instant access to the hills like you can in Boise?
Now we have a chance to enhance our access even more!
Steve hiking the Five Mile Creek trail in 1997 with
son Quinn, 4 months old, in the backpack. Now Five Mile is
official city property, leading to one of my favorites,
Watchman Trail ...
Hiking, biking or running to Stack Rock is another opportunity made
possible by the levy and generous donor Fred Alleman.
Hi all,
Everyone once in a while, we do something right. That's what happened in May 2001 when residents of Boise passed the first $10 million foothills open space levy by a 60% margin. Foothills recreationists banded together with the Idaho Conservation League, Boise Parks & Recreation former Chairman Chuck McDevitt and Republican Mayor Brent Coles to wage an awesome city-wide grass-roots campaign that put us across the finish line in a winning position.
I was running the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association (SWIMBA) at the time along with Tom Baskin. We saw the foothills levy as the single most significant thing our group could work on to increase trail access, acquire new open space reserves, and make connections between trails at the foot of the valley with BLM and Forest Service lands above.
Wendy and Dave Kordiyak enjoying the new trails in Polecat Reserve.
Polecat Reserve and the trailheads on Cartwright Road and N. Collister
were made possible by the foothills levy.
I still remember the night when I went to a meeting about the levy with Mayor Coles, and he told about 20 of us with great vigor that he wanted to partner with recreation and conservation forces to pass the levy. He wasn't sure he could get the Boise Chamber of Commerce to go along with us, but he was going to go for it anyway. We applauded mightly and agreed with him. Let's go for it!
Shortly afterwards, SWIMBA organized a free beer and pizza party at Noodles downtown and packed the house. Baskin and I made big speeches, imploring the rank and file of the hiking, biking and running community to step up and support the levy. If there was ever a time to get involved, the time was now!
Suddenly we had several hundred volunteers who plugged in to work on the campaign in many different capacities, and ultimately, we got the voters to the polls and passed the levy. It was one of the most gratifying things I've ever been a part of. I still feel being part of the campaign team was the single most important thing I've done in my life.
The $10 million levy fund is almost depleted after the City of Boise purchased more than 10,800 acres of land and easements worth more than $37.7 million in the last 14 years. So Mayor Bieter and the City Council have put a new $10 million levy on the ballot for Nov. 3 -- that's less than two months away! It's called the Boise Water, Open Space and Recreation Levy.
Once again, it's time for recreationists and conservation folks to band together to pass the new levy. Wendy and I are hosting a house party next Wednesday, Sept. 9 5:30-8 p.m. to raise funds, inform folks about the campaign, and sign up people to help. There will be free beer, wine, food and music courtesy of the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley, Conservation Voters for Idaho, the Trust for Public Lands and Steve and Wendy.
Areas shown in dark green were purchased
with funds from the open space levy.
(click to enlarge)
This is an open invitation event to hikers, dog-walkers, bikers, trail-runners, horseback riders -- recreationists of all kinds -- to party with your friends, drink some cheer, shake a leg, learn about the campaign, contribute as you feel appropriate, and plug-in if you wish.
The cool thing about the open space levy is that it's a two-year measure ... it raises property taxes by $2.39 a month for two years to raise the $10 million, and then it sunsets. A very small price to pay for such a huge benefit. Here's a presentation from the city with more details.
When I go hiking or biking on the Bucktail Trail in Military Reserve, tying the park's trails to Shane's Loop, I remember how that was one of the first purchases made after the $10 million levy passed. Back in 2000, I took the TV news people to the fenceline at the north edge of Military Reserve Park and talked about the potential to connect to Shane's. The whole Polecat Reserve was another key purchase. The Five-Mile Creek reserve and Watchman Trail were a HUGE addition. Stack Rock, Eastside, Hillside to the Hollow, the new trails in Daniels Creek and Dry Creek. The list goes on ...
Many of us use the foothills trails several times a week. Think about how cool it would be to add even more open space reserves and trails in the foothills or the Boise River corridor to enhance the recreation experience for us, our children and our grandchildren.
This is a big opportunity for everyone in Boise to step up to improve our community's quality of life for future generations. We have to get people to the polls on Nov. 3. Let's seize the day and make it happen!
Read all about Steve's outdoor trips in Idaho, including hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, camping, trail-running, whitewater boating, canoeing, SUP’ing, skiing and snowshoeing.
I love being outdoors and hanging out in the mountains. It's my favorite place to be. I love to explore new places and experience different outposts in the Idaho backcountry.
Posts
