Hui!! U folks like go back to Idaho? K’den. We go, south on Highway 95. Heading home from Montana.

The last sign we saw, for Mary McCroskey Park? Here’s where you can read more about it and see the amazing views that can be seen. Her son spent tons and tons of money and a good part of his life preserving it as a tribute to his mom.  Seeing the views from the top must be an amazing experience. Maybe somebody was up there even now watching us drive by!  Our road-levels views were pretty beautiful, but I’d still like to see the area from a higher view. It’s a 21-mile ridgetop road.

Ho da green!!

The highway view was so beautiful; I wasn’t driving super fast because we were trying to take in all the views around us.

See what I mean? Breathtaking, every direction we looked.

I’m so happy that we have these photos; they help me refresh my memories of how beautiful everything was.

We were climbing into and past the treeline; we loved how traffic, if you could call it that, was so minimal. Maybe it’s not like this once school lets out, but it was sure nice now.

This sign said it all. Considering how many times Indians have been shoved into junk areas for their reservations, I was happy to know how beautiful this area is for them. Not that I approve of the whole idea of shoving people aside, mind you.

Then we were heading downhill again, and everything stayed just as nani.

Now this rest area was amazing. On GoogleMaps, it’s only designated “Roadside Park”, but it’s oh, so much more than that!

We stopped here and said silent mahalo nui to the many armed forces personnel who are willing to give their lives for our country.

Can you believe it??? A nature trail at a rest stop! We hadn’t planned on stopping for more than a few minutes here, but stretching our legs in such a lovely area sounded really good.

Yay! An American Robin right in the middle of the trail. I love Robins. When I was volunteering for Wildlife Rescue, they were my favorite babies to raise to release. One of these days I’ll have to post photos of a few of them.

Lots of the trees had plaques like these, so that people could see the differences between them. A fir ain’t just a fir, ya know.

Try look! Isn’t this wonderful? Imagine having a peaceful, beautiful, nature trail at the edge of an incredibly busy (yes, it does get busy) highway. We could hear lots of birdsong, too.

I love winding trails as much as I like winding roads!  It was 49°, so not too cold or hot to be walking through here.

Shoots. I forgot to write down which tree this was.

We had no idea where the trail led, but we kept going anyway. We were the only ones walking here, and I thought of everything that everyone else was missing. Maybe they were in a hurry to get somewhere, but you know, sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy stuff lidis. Stop and breathe, stop and forget destinations for a little while. Refresh your soul.

Sunlight and shadow. We loved it all.

We stopped to look at the beautiful flowers growing alongside the trail.  (They weren’t labeled, so adunno what the were.  Maybe perennial Phlox?

This sign tells about Mary McCroskey Park…it’s over 4500 acres! It’s pretty hard to read…

Oh good!! I moa akamai den I thought! I took close-ups so we can read um.

Here’s a photo of Victor, the son. What an amazing man he was; and I really like that he recognized that life for pioneer women was ‘way harder than that of the men.

And here’s his mom.

Just so you can see it, here’s a Google Maps aerial photo of the rest stop.

So that’s it for this leg of the journey.  Nolemana and I were both so happy that we’d taken this break in our travels. We’d been driving through so much beauty, and it was expansive and wonderful, and this little unexpected treat made our road trip oh, so much better!