The Blanch Herd: Spectacular Sun Valley

After a two-year hiatus, we reinstated our annual October General Conference leaf-peeping trip to a ski resort town. (In 2013, our inaugural year for this tradition, we visited Terrific Telluride and in 2014 it was to Delightful Durango. Then, in 2015, Sam was born and we didn't travel further than South Jordan and Logan. And why didn't we go anywhere in 2016? I don't know. But I'm certainly glad we got things back in gear for a 2017 trip to Spectacular Sun Valley!)

We left after breakfast on Friday morning (September 29th) and drove north into Idaho. Our first stop was a gas station in Pocatello (exciting!) and then we drove some more. After yet another gas station potty break in Arco, ID, we made a quick visit to Blizzard Mountain to check out Beaver Mountain's original 1950 T-bar lift that is still in operation when the local Lion's Club hosts free skiing Saturdays (when snow permits). From there it was just a quick jaunt to the entrance of Craters (or "Critters" if you hear the name through four-year-old ears - she was so confused as to why we didn't see any "moon animals") of the Moon National Monument, where we found a picnic table and stretched our legs while we ate. After lunch, water bottle refills, stamps in our passport, and a quick look-see at the visitor's center, we started out on the 7-mile scenic loop road, with plenty of stops along the way for little walks through the lava flows. It was pretty awesome, really. As we were driving along the highway from Arco, we looked out on the landscape and it appeared as if there was a big cloud shadowing the ground up ahead. But there was no cloud. It was just dark ground. Black rock in the middle of nowhere. We wandered around the newest flow (just 2000 years old), hiked up a cinder hill for a good view, strolled through the "Devil's Orchard", and peeked inside a couple of craters. By then Sam was beyond tired, so we continued our journey onward and upward.

Doodles from the back seat. One of Callie's
iconic "smiley faces".

These kids were amazing car trippers. We had plenty more
smiles and giggles than crying and complaining. Gold stars
to them!

He rode like this for a handful of miles.

He called it his "nunnel" aka tunnel.

Lunchtime in the sunshine!

The first stop on the Craters of the Moon scenic loop was
the North Crater Flow, a short trail (0.25 mile) which crosses
one of the youngest lava flows to monoliths, crater fragments
rafted here by lava flows ((seen in the upper right of this photo).

They love signs. Like their momma.

This hill is the cone which all the lava we were walking
through came from.

I love the name of this lava: pronounced "ah-ah!", just like you'd
say if you were walking across it barefoot. I read that it has a
higher (maybe the highest? I can't remember exactly now)
silica content compared to other forms of lava.

Here are the monoliths referred to in the first pic.

They loved this trail!

Up the hill of cinders for a better view.

Ta-da! She made it up the big steps without help!

Here we are on the Devil's Orchard loop trail.

Neon lichens doing their job to start the break-
down process on the lava rocks, eventually
turning them into soil, allowing bigger plants to
grow.

A steep, but short, little hike up into the crater of the spatter cones.

Deep crater.

Good thing there was a fence.

Obligatory group shot. The mountain behind us in the distance
was another stop on the loop: a hike up the ridge of Inferno Cone.
We opted to skip it due to impending nap time for the Sambo.

Behind the fence in the distance is Snow Cone,
which we could see as we came down the
Spatter Cones trail. (We went there next.)

Don't know what these are, but they were dotting
the black rock all through the drive. Pretty hardy
little beauties, I'd say.

Can you see the snow waaaay down there?
(I'm guessing that's where its name comes from?)

Cool colors in the rock at this one.

See what I mean about the flowers? I love 'em.

Our next stop was Haily, ID for, you guessed it, another ski lift sighting (it was a theme for sure on this trip). This one was called Rotarun. On our way there, we noticed an awesome playground at the "Hailey Tourist Park" so we stopped there for a while on our way back through. Then we were back in the car for our last leg to Ketchup, I mean Ketchum, where we got settled into our room in the Tamarack Lodge. Okay, we didn't get settled for long before we were all splashing in the pool. We found a yummy pizza place within walking distance for dinner and brought it back to our room so we could eat and watch the Ags and then crash into bed.

Hailey Tourist Park. Not just for tourists, as
we found out. ;)

It was the perfect place to play and explore.

At last, we have arrived at room 209!

Pizza picnic.

Go Aggies!

The couch turned into Cal's bed. Sam was
preeetty disappointed (read: MAD) that he
didn't get to sleep in it, too.

Saturday may have been one of the best days we've ever had as a family. We started it off with warm-from-the-microwave pumpkin cinnamon rolls (with maple frosting!) followed closely by another trip down to the pool. I think we were the only people with kids and without dogs in our whole hotel. And nobody seemed to want to swim either. So we always had the pool to ourselves. Then, we had baths, got dressed, and headed out the door for a rainy drive through town. All before 9:30 am! We were back in our room for the first session of conference. After a hotel room picnic lunch, we hurried out into the not-so-rainy-anymore outside for a hike on the Sunrise Trail overlooking Sun Valley. We wandered through the village for a bit before heading back to our room for the afternoon session (i.e. naps! for all of us! (at one point or another)). After the session concluded and everyone woke up, we loaded up the stroller for a walk and wander through town. We grabbed some burritos for dinner then grabbed the car for a park trip and base area tours at Bald Mountain. Back to the hotel again for one last dip in the pool before popcorn and stories and bed. Whew! Best day ever status achieved!

Conference breakfast of champions.
(I made them on Thursday and froze them to bring
on our trip. We just nuked them for a few seconds
in the microwave and they were as good as fresh.)

It turns out that the roof over the pool leaked. Needless to say,
Saturday morning's swim was not as warm as Friday afternoon's.

But everyone was smiling nevertheless.

Now that's a tubful!

Sun Valley's original single chair. Still on
tension. And now in the middle of a neighborhood
of mansions.

The Sun Valley Lodge, as seen from our hike across the street.

I just really like her hair in this pic. Ha.

Top of the trail views. The Lodge in the parking lot to the left and Bald
Mountain ski trails in the background on the right.

Strollin' through the village.

I would love to listen to a concert in the
amphitheater someday.

Saturday afternoon conferencing.

Ketchum strollin'.

The park in Ketchum was nothin' to sneeze at either.

No one was brave enough to try that three story slide though.

Checkin' out the base area at River Run.

Yep, back in the pool!

It was their favorite spot.

bonus videos!

"wimming!"

big splashes

You can't tell me that's not the cutest thing
you've ever seen.

Story snuggles.

Sunday morning we took a gorgeous drive north out of town to the top of Galena summit and back. The morning light plus the golden leaves and the snow-capped peaks made for breathtaking views the whole way. We got back to the hotel in time for Music and the Spoken Word and the first half of the Sunday Morning Session of Conference. We ate some snacks and packed up our stuff and piled in the car for the journey home, where we finished listening to the rest of the Sunday talks. We stopped for lunch at our last ski resort of the trip: Pomerelle, which is outside of Albion, ID (aka the middle of nowhere!). It was freezing (well, I guess not quite, if you want to get technical, but it was in the 30s and windy and cloudy) so we had a car picnic. From there it was just a couple hours till home. We were treated to a stunning display of colors along the Wellsvilles and Northern Wasatch Mountains from our vantage point on the freeway driving past. And the home stretch over the North Ogden Divide was fantastically red and gold and orange with the golden hour light making the colors just pop!

I only have "through the car windows" photos of our drive,
so they're not ideal. But trust me when I say it was a glorious
drive.

Frosty grasses in the shade.

I spy two happy-to-be-unbuckled kiddos
while we make lunch in the back.

Lunchtime views at Pomerelle.

I have no words.

The clouds were moving fast - even Cal and Sam noticed them.
So we had gray skies, then peeks of blue, and then snow
flurries. All in the matter of half an hour or so.