Idaho

Lava Fields and Steaming Springs

The Snake River Plain stretches across southern Idaho like a geological fever dream. Craters of the Moon National Monument preserves a surreal expanse of lava tubes, cinder cones and spatter cones formed by eruptions only a few thousand years ago. Nearby, Shoshone Falls plunges higher than Niagara in spring, and the region is scattered with natural hot spring pools where you can soak under open sky with views of canyon walls going orange in the late afternoon light.

Sun Valley and the Mountain Towns

Sun Valley has been drawing skiers, writers and film folk since the 1930s, and it has aged into one of the most polished mountain resorts in North America without losing its sense of place. Stanley sits at the confluence of rivers in a basin ringed by the Sawtooth Mountains, a town of a few hundred people surrounded by wilderness so spectacular that visitors tend to go quiet the moment they arrive. In summer the mountains open up to hikers, mountain bikers and anyone willing to drive a dirt road to see what is around the next bend.

Boise on Its Own Terms

Boise has spent the last decade becoming a city that people who visit tend to want to move to. The Basque community, one of the largest outside Europe, has shaped the food and culture of the downtown district in ways you notice immediately and appreciate slowly. The Greenbelt runs for kilometres along the Boise River through parks, beneath cottonwood trees and past breweries and coffee roasters that spill onto the path. It is a city that fits its landscape rather than ignoring it, and that is a rarer quality than it sounds.