We started our Idaho adventure in the Curlew National Grasslands near Holbrook, ID. The hills surrounding the area above the grasslands are sage and juniper and we found a terrific, secluded spot with a view of the valley and perfectly colored hillsides. The best part our first few days there was the Junipers were tall enough to hang our hammocks. I love my hammock office – something about the gentle swing as I work. Lovely. Also, the kitties always enjoy when we have trees around for them to climb.

The only downside of this spot was the wimpy cell signal. A half mile walk either direction got us to three bars of 4G, so one day I actually Walked to Work up the hill, used a stump as a desk, and communicated with clients for a few hours. Of course, I had Cole, Daisy and Toby as my very quiet and sleepy office mates.

Toby learned an important life-lesson: “Don’t eat spicy flying raisins.” Poor baby, I don’t know what was worse, being so swollen or being drugged out on benadryl.

The lesson for me (JoDana) is, when the inspiration strikes, Do It! I’d had a passing thought for years that I should just shave my head – I have super thick hair and it’s a hassle to maintain it, especially when you are constantly conserving water. So, out came the trimmers! And I’m not the only one who likes the results.

From Curlew, we continued through southern Idaho to Silver Creek not far from the entrance to Craters of the Moon (half hour, more or less). There are a couple of improved camp areas with tables and vault toilets, but even more unimproved areas to park. We found a spot right on the river next to a little waterfall. The crickets and birds were abundant and there’s nothing like falling asleep each night to the babbling of a creek.

We spent a lot of time on our kayaks and wading in the water with the dogs. On one of our kayak floats down the creek we struck up a conversation with Caroline and Gabriel from Joshua Tree. We invited them to come camp by us and enjoyed the next few days in their company and we discovered we had a few things in common.

One of my absolute favorite things about nomad life is how quickly you get to know people and develop friendships. There’s something magical about a campfire that inspires people to open up about life and you learn so much about them. We enjoyed our time with Caroline and Gabriel so much, and you can see what they are doing on their YouTube Channel Wondrous Lyfe.

Craters of the Moon was great, especially being the rock and geology nerd that I am. Calvin indulges me. Of course we enjoyed walking the short trails and exploring the cinder buttes and lava formations (Lava caves were closed when we were there due to seismic instability), but as usual we enjoyed visiting with the people more. Met several interesting folks, including several full-time nomads.

We’d heard that there were hot springs in the area, so our next move was to hunt for one of them, and we found Prince Albert Hot Spring. (Be mindful, if you come this way, that Google Maps tries to drive you through someone’s property. Fortunately, the property owners have put up signs to direct you.) We got Moose right up between the two pools, which some folks on dirt bikes couldn’t believe. It’s not an easy road. The lower, cooler pool is a cattle watering trough that, from what we could learn, was likely put there in the 1970s. It’s got a few holes and leaks, and we managed to plug a few of the bigger ones, but it was in bad shape, full of mud and grass. We got muddy and devoted a couple hours to cleaning, draining, and scrubbing this pool.

While that one was filling, we checked out the upper pool, which is much hotter as it’s closer to the source. We were there just after the Mormon Cricket hatch, so there were crickets E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!! Many were clearly suicidal because this pool was full of cooked cricket corpses. We worked on cleaning this pool up as well. By the time we were done the pools were relatively pristine and ready for future explorers to come and enjoy. And really, sitting in a hot spring pool with a million dollar view? Who can possibly do better than that?

We left Prince Albert after a fairly short stay, but rain was in the forecast and we really did not want to try to tackle that chalk dust road wet. We said goodbye to our cow neighbors and drove through Mountain Home to a spot on Jack’s Creek. Two words: Windy and Ticks. Massive nasty ticks. All the animals are regularly treated, but we’re not! There was a lot of checking bodies and bedding that night.

We quickly left tick-ville and trekked out on the Owyhee Backcountry Byway – over 100 miles of dirt road through the beautiful uplands and canyons of the Owyhee river. We spent a couple nights at the BLM North Fork campground, again on the water. This looks to be a popular hunting and fishing spot, although in mid-May we pretty much had the place to ourselves. What a glorious time to be here, with the desert blooming and daisies and lupines popping with color everywhere.

We’re almost back to our home state of Oregon!