Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
If you like camping in a campground and lake fishing, Henrys Lake State Park is the park for you. State Park Overview There is a lot to recommend Henrys Lake State Park. However, if I am being perfectly honest, this park was not my exact …
In between two small towns in Eastern Idaho, a no-longer-needed path has a new lease on life. Ride/bike/walk between two towns and enjoy epic scenery consisting of farms, creeks and the impressive Teton Mountain Range. The Ashton to Tetonia Trail covers the 30 miles between, …
Head to Land of the Yankee Fork State Park for a taste of Idaho’s mining history and a chance to explore some cool ghost towns.
If you enjoy history, mining, the great outdoors, or all of the above, this is the park for you. Land of the Yankee Fork State Park focuses on central Idaho’s mining history. There are three ghost towns you can explore: Custer, Bonanza and Bayhorse. You can also see the Yankee Fork Dredge. On top of that, the countryside is beautiful.
This park also has the best name of any state park. It’s really fun to say.
The interpretive center had some of the nicest restrooms of any state park we visited. For all of the specifics, check out the parks and rec’s website for Land of the Yankee Fork State Park.
You will run into a few people at some of the ghosts towns, but this is a remote area and the crowds will be sparse. In other words, we love the crowd situation at this park.
Pan for gold! This was actually closed while we were there, but it would have been something unique and fun to do. They let you keep two flecks of gold…assuming you can find those flecks amidst all of the sand and gravel.
The interpretive center has a nice gift shop and I was able to purchase a cute pair of earrings with some gold flecks in the design. I would have preferred to pan for my own gold, but a cute pair of earrings was a nice consolation prize.
Land of the Yankee Fork State Park was selected as Idaho’s Centennial Park in 1990, with the purchase of twenty acres two miles south of Challis, Idaho. The interpretive center is located on those twenty acres.
For the past 15 years, I have made the trek to Challis, Idaho, to attend a music festival in August. I feel like I have done everything Challis has to offer at least a dozen times. Ironically though, I had never visited the Land of Yankee Fork State Park interpretive center. So it was fun to find something new to do in Challis.
The center is nice and has very clean restrooms. It is a really good spot to stop, stretch your legs and learn a bit about the area. However, I will warn you that they have a museum and video that cost extra. Not a lot, but it is something to be aware of. The interpretive center also has a fun little gift shop.
I’m not going to lie, this site is not the most impressive thing you will see in the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park. There also seems to be some debate as to how often it was used. If you stop at the interpretive center, it is worth a look. There is a short path to the site and if you are really lucky, you may spot a bighorn sheep or two.
This road is beautiful. It is also rough. If you have a high-clearance vehicle, I recommend you take it and enjoy the views. If you are in your car, I recommend you think twice. I was very glad to be driving it in my truck. If you do drive the whole Custer Motorway, I recommend you have a copy of the Challis-Yankee Fork Ranger District – Custer Motorway Guide handy. The history and descriptions are great. The map is a little rough, but still helpful.
You can reach Custer and Bonanza using the Custer Motorway via Highway 75 near Sunbeam, or via Challis. These ghost towns are awesome! They are in great shape (for a ghost town) and provide a good look into mining life during that time. I believe they do reenactments sometimes, but that was not happening when we visited. We walked around and peaked into old buildings. It was all so fascinating.
The dredge is located between Custer and Bonanza. It is massive and quite a site to see in the middle of the mountains. You can tour the dredge, but I have not had a chance to do that yet.
Bayhorse is an old mining town located about 20 minutes from the interpretive center in Challis. The road is also a little rough, but you can get there in a car if you drive slowly. There is a nice parking lot and a ranger on duty. So you can ask questions or simply wander about and look at the old mining infrastructure. It is all rather fascinating.
Land of the Yankee Fork State Park is a unique park full of history and beautiful scenery. It is remote and requires a lot of driving, but the views and experiences are worth it. Just make sure to take your trip when the weather is warm. Most of the park is inaccessible when the snow flies.
Note: we visited Land of the Yankee Fork State Park as part of our Idaho State Parks Challenge. The challenge consists of visiting all of Idaho’s state parks in one year. We made up this challenge to see a bit more of our beautiful state and help alleviate the restlessness caused by Covid-19 travel restrictions. Feel free to join the challenge!
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Did you know that the tallest free standing sand dunes in North America can be found in southwestern Idaho? Well if you make a stop at Bruneau Dunes State Park and try to hike to the top of one of them, you sure would. Bruneau …
Thousand Springs State Park is big and geological in nature. That makes for some fun exploring and interesting photos. State Park Overview Overall, we give this park five stars (mostly because there is so much to do and it is so gosh darn beautiful). There …
Boiseans have a wonderful resource for fun almost at their fingertips. Eagle Island State Park is located just a few miles outside of Boise. Activities here are plentiful: fishing, swimming, horseback riding, disc golf, hiking, zip-lining, or what we did on a recent Sunday afternoon…picnicking.
Overall, we give this state park four stars.
I’m not sure how they crammed so many things into one park, but there really is a little something for everyone at Eagle Island State Park.
The park has all the usual amenities like restrooms, picnic tables, etc. There’s also features a life jacket and junior ranger program for kids. For all of the specifics, check out the parks and rec’s website for Eagle Island State Park.
This park is busy in the summertime. Expect lots of people. Finding a place to park may be difficult on the weekends. I recommend you start early or choose late afternoon/evening to avoid the crowds. There is a huge parking lot, but I suspect it gets full on busy days.
In winter this park is still used, but is much less frequented. So maybe 4 stars in the cooler months.
Where else can horseback ride, zip line, and go on a waterslide all in one location? It’s a weird conglommeration of activities.
The park is quite large, around 550 acres. With that much room, you can fit in a lot of different ways to recreate.
This place has a fascinating history. In 1929, the land was purchased by the Idaho State Board of Prisons. For the next 50 years or so, prisoners lived here and worked on a farm/dairy/slaughterhouse (Crazy, right?!)
In 1983, Eagle Island State Park was dedicated as a state park. The prisoners had moved out several years before.
We stopped at a grocery store close to the park and picked up some food for a picnic before entering the park. We weren’t dressed for swimming so instead we just put out a blanket and watched as families set up barbecues and splashed around in the beach area.
For $5 per car load (zip line not included), Eagle Island is a great option for families in Boise to get outside. With the plentiful activities available, there really should be something to entertain everyone.
We visited Eagle Island State Park as part of our Idaho State Parks Challenge. The challenge consists of visiting all of Idaho’s state parks in one year. We made up this challenge to see a bit more of our beautiful state and help alleviate the restlessness caused by Covid-19 travel restrictions. Feel free to join the challenge!
Related posts you might like:
Or if you want to see all of our posts, visit Past Posts.
When summer rolls around, head to Lucky Peak State Park for biking and kayaking and a plethora of other outdoor activities. This Idaho state park is ideal for hot summer days and getting out of the city. State Park Overview Overall, we give this state park …
Hiking on your vacation is an excellent way to experience the natural wonders of a destination. Even if you wouldn’t normally consider yourself a hiker, I can guarantee (okay maybe not really, but there’s a very high probability) you will see something incredible if you …
I don’t claim to be a foodie and my palette is anything but refined. But a travel size spice kit does make it into my suitcase on certain trips and I am glad for it. I decided to make my own, personalized spice kit and I recommend you do the same. A DIY travel spice kit is easy to make and very affordable. And for all you foodies out there, you can call this your mobile foodie survival kit.
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A portable spice kit is good to have when you are traveling and plan to…
I set out to make my own spice kit after R and I decided to spend Christmas in Germany. The country basically shuts down during this time and we knew that finding open restaurants would be a challenge. So we planned to make a nice Christmas dinner at our Airbnb. Since I wasn’t sure what our Airbnb would offer in terms of spices and I didn’t want to buy full-size spices at the grocery store, I decided to bring my own. Honestly, it was one of the quickest and easiest DIY projects I have ever done.
There are a lot of good reasons to create a travel spice kit for your next trip. Travel spice kits are simple to make and super affordable. You may even have everything you need at home to make one. They are also customizable. It is your spice kit, make it the way you want it. But best of all, they are portable and convenient. No need to buy full-sized spices at the grocery store.
To make your own travel spice kit, you need just three things:
The best part about making your own travel spice kit is that you get to decide which spices you want. My spice selection is pretty basic. I included salt, pepper, garlic salt, dried onions, rosemary, thyme and sage in my original travel spice kit. But please, feel free not to be as boring as me.
Bonus: I grew my own herbs and dried them. It was fun to be able to include a little piece of something I grew in Idaho and use it on our Christmas roast in Germany.
When it comes to labeling your spices, you can go as elaborate as you want. That is the beauty of DIY! I have a handy little label maker that I love, so a DIY travel spice kit is the perfect place to use that. But a sharpie would work just as well. Your container of choice may dictate how you label, but the important thing is that you label those spices. There is nothing worse than adding the wrong spice to a dish simply because you had a cold and your nose couldn’t tell the difference.
There are a lot of options for choosing your container. I am going to share with you my preferred container options, but also some other options you could use depending on your preference, or what you have around the house.
I actually have two containers that I prefer and I purchased both of them in a craft store. That’s right, head to the beading section of any craft store and you will find a treasure trove of containers. One I particularly like is a cylinder shape with small round containers that screw onto each other. The best part about this type of container is that you can customize your kit to the exact number of spices you want to pack. If you only want to pack three types of species, you just use three containers and leave the rest at home. I packed seven species when I went to Germany and my spice kit was still small and lightweight. This cylinder shape comes in different sizes itself, so it is a perfect option for a DIY project.
The other container from the bead section of the craft store that I like is a circle shape with eight compartments with snap-lock closures. This container is small, yet holds a lot of spices. The only downside is that you cannot take less than eight. Sure, you can leave some of the compartments empty. But whether you fill them or not, you have to take the whole container. Good thing it is small!
Containers in the craft store are affordable. They will cost around $3-4. Or there is always Amazon: Darice Round Bead Caddy
Head to your local pharmacy and check out the pill containers. These make excellent spice containers. The Walgreens down the street had every size and color imaginable. The cheapest was 99 cents, which is hard to beat. I find two downsides to using pill containers for spice kits. First, there will always be some sort of letter or day of week plastered all over the case. So you may have to work a little harder to label your spices. Second, pill containers come with a pretty set number of spaces: seven. I did find a pill container with three sections, but most were seven. I doubt this a dealbreaker, but it is something to keep in mind.
The most customizable container of all is not any one container, but multiple containers. Small baggies, travel-sized jars, tins or even used Tic Tac containers work for this DIY option. The real advantage is its scalability. The real disadvantage is that you will need a separate container to contain your mini containers. And depending on how many spices you pack, you will have to sort through them to find the one you want. None of this is a big deal in my opinion and you may find this DIY option to be the best for you.
If you research DIY travel spice kit options, you cannot help but come across an option that uses straws. I decided to try this option out to see how easy it is. Turns out it’s really easy. You just need plastic straws, a lighter and a pair of pliers. It took me less than two minutes to package some salt using a straw.
The bright side to this type of kit is a super lightweight, highly customizable spice kit. The downside to this type of kit is that these spices are one-time use. Once you open that straw, you cannot seal it up again (unless you are in the habit of carrying a lighter and pliers wherever you go). If you want to use your spices more than once, or more importantly, your containers, you may want to consider another option.
I realize not everyone loves a good DIY project. Or perhaps you just don’t have the time. Or you want something cute and you know your limitations. You can always take out the DIY part and simply buy a travel spice kit. There are really, really cute options for travel size spice kits on Etsy and even a few options on Amazon (although they are not as cute as the options on Etsy):
A DIY travel spice kit is easy to make and affordable. I highly recommend you try making your own if you plan to do any cooking on your next trip. You can customize your spices and create a kit that meets your packing needs, and keeps your taste buds happy.
Related posts you may like:
Or if you want to see all of our posts, visit Past Posts
I recently came across an interesting article; the gist was that more and more frequently, music is driving Millenial’s vacation choices. As I reflected on some of the statistics found in that study, I realized music is a large component of my adventures. This post …
