Introduction

Thanks for checking out my blog! I hope you find these activities worthwhile your time to enjoy the outdoors around Rexburg, Idaho. These activities are planned to be simple and not be extremely pricey because I'm a student right now that can't fork out all that cash! There may be some activities that you may think, "Hey I thought you said not a lot of cash?!" according to your standards but I think the experience is well worth it. Just go out there and enjoy yourselves! I hope you come to love the outdoors as much as I do. Remember to always be safe.

Check-List for Day Hikes

I wanted to give you all a summary of what to expect for any type of day hike. These are things you want to make sure you have in place in order to make the best of your adventure.

• Hiking Shoes, Sandals, or shoes with good ankle and sole support. Your feet will begin to ache if you don't have good support for the sole and ankle in case you trip. When your feet are happy, then so are you! For more information on different types of hiking shoes, check out this great blog: http://hikingdude.com/hiking-boots.php
• Nutritious snacks and meals. Avoid candy and chocolates which give temporary energy but then give you a slump afterwards. Some examples of good snacks I like are: trail mix, energy bars, beef jerky, apples, or some Nature Valley Oats N' Honey bars (classic!)
• A backpack to store items into
• 2-3 liters of water
• Sunscreen
• Bug repellent (if needed for the area)
• Camera

That should give you a great start to any trail you want to hike. Go out there and have some fun!

Bonus: Activity #10, Snowmobiling in Island Park

Ok, so you're probably thinking this is not my normal thing for the blog and you're right. I took this opportunity to go snowmobiling with a friend out in Island Park over the weekend. Fortunately he had an extra snowmobile and gear that I was able to use. It certainly isn't a cheap hobby but man this was so much fun! It was my first time riding on a snowmobile and I was able to learn the ropes pretty quick.

We left on Friday evening after our classes for Island Park. Island Park is about an hour north of Rexburg off of Highway 20 and my buddy's cabin was a few miles into Island Park. I was very excited to arrive and get ready for the morning time. We actually spent some of our night working on homework so we wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend. It was worth it to be bookworms that night for a full day of fun on Saturday.

In the morning, we got all of our things together and started putting on the gear. I don't think I have ever put on so many layers of clothing in my life (4) but it was needed to stay warm on the ride. The temperature was going to be an unusually "warm" 25 degrees for the day. It still felt like 0 degrees when riding around which is still dang cold to me.

Snowmobiles are really fast. Did you know that? I was surprised at the speed and went as fast as 65mph on the snow. Just make sure to not hit anything or you're toast. I was able to hit that speed on the main road we traveled for many miles to come to an area my buddy usually rides at. The trail was so much fun with lots of bumps and slopes to catch some air. Many times we were off the trail doing some exploring which was fun but made me get stuck a lot because I didn't have as powerful of a snowmobile.

We did get caught in a messy situation. Some really bad fog started to settle at higher points of the trail in the afternoon which brought the visibility down to like 50 feet. We ended up getting lost for about an hour which certainly had me stressed because we were riding in circles trying to get back to the main trail. Imagine being in a large open field with a couple of feet deep snow with no landmarks around and you can't see far ahead. It's easy to lose a sense of direction and luckily we had the compasses working on our iPhones to continue traveling in a certain direction. Once we were out of that, we continued playing around on huge hills and finding new places to ride.

We got back to the cabin at dusk having done a full day's worth of riding. It was a ton of fun but surprisingly exhausting from maneuvering the whole snowmobile on hills and turns. My body was feeling it on our ride home and this morning when I woke up.

If you have connections and haven't done snowmobiling before, you've gotta go for it! It turns a nasty snow day into an all out blast. I'm glad I was able to experience it for my last weekend in Idaho because I graduate this coming week.

Activity #9 Sheep Creek Mountains

I decided to go out again on Tuesday morning to do another day activity because I had no classes for school. I wanted to use my free day in Idaho before Thanksgiving in a way I thought productive. I went back out to Swan Valley because of the numerous amounts of trails that are available.

This time I went to Sheep Creek trail. The road to turn onto from Swan Valley highway is just a little before the huge reservoir on the right.  There is a noticeable brown sign on the right indicating the turn off from the highway just before the turn.

The trail head is about 2 miles back in. This area didn't have as much snow as last week but was certainly more wooded than the other area. When I arrived at the trail head, I was definitely in solitude and felt a little uneasy hiking alone this particular spot. If I had someone else with me then this would have been a great trail to check out. I got back in my car and drove back down the road a little bit. This is where I decided to climb a mountain off to the side that was very much in the open to reduce what I thought the chance of running into some dangerous wildlife.

I parked my car right after the intersection to continue on Forest Road 260. With the car parked on the right side of the road, I got out and started the climb up the mountain to the right. It felt cool to not be on a trail and do some free hiking. This was the interesting part. I thought a more open area would be a less of a chance to run into wildlife but I actually ran into a pack of 10 deer that were together about midway up which I took a video of.

The top of this particular point was beautiful to see and I sat at the top for a bit. I had full bars of signal for my phone which was amusing to me and very convenient to send pictures to friends and family. The way up was steep and I definitely had to consider my steps and be careful going up at some parts. I had to do the same coming down the mountain.

Overall I really liked this activity. It was different than I planned to do but that's what made it fun and adventurous. This was about a half days worth of an activity and I was back in Rexburg at about 12:30 PM. I left earlier in the morning around 8:30 AM.

Activity #8 Big Elk Creek Trail

Swan Valley has become a prime spot for great trails to check out. Through good research of the trails, I decided to check out Big Elk Creek trail. My roommates and I left at about 9:00 AM and got to the trail head for the hike at about 10:15 AM. The route is taking Swan Valley highway towards the Palisades reservoir which is about 45 miles down from the Ririe turnoff. The turn off to the trail is called Big Elk Creek road which is right before the big bend that loops around a part of the reservoir. It's pretty easy to spot on the left at the large downhill bend. The road is unpaved that follows a ridge and the trail head is about 2 miles back at the campgrounds.

We were the only ones there at this time of the day because I think many people figured there would be a lot of snow. Well, they were right because we did encounter fair amounts of snow along the trail. However, we didn't let that get in the way of our hike.

The trail overall was a pretty good one. It wasn't very strenuous for the parts we did and we went about 3.5 miles in and then turned back around. There are open canyons with nice views of the mountains and the creek is alongside the trail for most of the way. There are large rocks right along the path as good trail marks to know where you are at. Since we started early, most of the trail was in the shadow still from the sunlight which made a good 10 degree difference in temperature at least.

The snow became too much at about 3.5 miles and we felt like snowshoeing more than hiking at this time of the year. The snowfall from 5 days before made a big impact. We did notice lots of wildlife prints along the trail in the snow but we didn't encounter anything personally.

After our hike, we again went to Alpine for a bite to eat because it was only 5-10 minutes down the road. It has become a good place to relax after a good hike.

This time of the year is more difficult trying to hike shortly after snowfalls but it's still doable. I think this is a great trail to check out and will be even better without the snow.

Activity #7 Mesa Falls and Warm River Campgrounds

I heard a lot about Mesa Falls and how neat of an area it is to visit. I decided I would take a trip up that way to check it out for myself. I was a little concerned about some snow up there but I still decided to go.

I left Rexburg about 9:45 AM for Mesa Falls. The trip takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to travel to the Mesa Falls parking lot. Head north on 20 from Rexburg until you reach Ashton and take a right on Idaho 47. Stay on this road for about 15 miles and you'll be at Mesa Falls lower and upper parking lot. The signs are hard to miss which come after signs that say the road is no longer maintained to keep the snow plowed.

Unfortunately this time of the year, there was snow already on the road but was still drive able in my Mazda 3. However, the road going down to Upper Falls looked very packed with snow and I almost got my car stuck so I turned around. I was disappointed but I didn't want to risk getting stranded so I headed back. I was able to get pictures of the lower Mesa Falls from a distance but I wasn't able to make it to the upper Mesa Falls on the trail I planned to hike. I came up with a little back up plan.

I found a campground called Warm River campground about 4 miles heading back that was at the bottom of the bend of the road that crosses the river. I decided to check it out and turned left right before the bridge and followed the road all the way to the end. I entered into the campground and went to the very back where a trail head started. I got excited to see another trail so I started exploring it. From this trail head, Bear Gulch was about 4 miles down. I hiked only about 2 miles and headed back because of my toe injury. The trail wasn't named but it was pretty as it followed the Warm River. When I came back, I stopped at the campground for a bit and had my lunch and just relaxed. It was very nice and there were some people in the river doing fly fishing with success.

Overall this was thought to be a disappointment to not see the entire Mesa Falls but the Warm River campground made up for it. It's a nice place to have a picnic or do some fishing along the river because I saw some fish jumping for the short time I ate my lunch.

Activity #6 Craters of the Moon National Park

I left at 8:45 AM from Rexburg to arrive at 10:30 AM at the park entrance. Pretty open drive with nothing but a really small town between Idaho Falls and Arco. I encountered the weirdest and most dense fog cloud that looked like a lot of smoke but was just part of the weather patterns that morning. It lasted for a good 15 miles of the trip between Idaho Falls and Arco.

Arco looked like a neat visitor town of about 1000 people that live there. It reminded me of a cool stopping place along old historic Route 66. Apparently there is a well known "Atomic" burger in town at a restaurant called "Pickle's Place" that I decided to try when I come back through heading home.

I stopped at the visitor center coming into the park. I grabbed a map and a cave permit from the ranger and asked for suggestions on where to go. He told some spots and I marked them on the map. The places I went to were North Crater trail, Indian Caves, and Tree Molds Trail.

There is an $8 fee to enter the park per car. The roads are nicely paved which is very nice. I stopped along the way to take pictures of the nice landscape. I stopped at North Crater trail and parked my car in that little parking lot. I did the 1.8 mile hike to see the big craters which was really cool. Near the end before the spatter cones I stopped at the top of the trail by the big craters to eat my lunch. I loved looking out over the huge landscape and pondering while I ate. Once I got to the spatter cones I hiked back to the car which was another 1.8 miles back. It is more strenuous with some steep inclines and declines in the trail.

I then drove over to the cave trails to visit Indian tunnel and go through there. There are 4 caves you can do but Indian tunnel was the only one I could do without a flashlight. It was a really cool experience and I recommend going through the tunnel all the way. I went into the Beauty cave a little ways and found out quickly it was way too dark for my phone flashlight and I wanted to take someone with me for that one. I wasn't scared or anything…

I then headed over to do the Tree Molds trail with the time I had left. I took lots of pictures because the trail was a hit! I hiked the two miles and went a little further on unmarked trails. The view was spectacular as it looked out for miles and miles. The mountains were off to the right the entire time. The hike was much easier than the North crater trail and was a little bit longer at 2.0 miles one way. I took lots of panoramic pictures because I just couldn't help it.

When I was done with my adventures at the park, I stopped in Arco to eat at Pickle's Place, home of the "Atomic" burger. I love traveling the road and stopping in little towns to try their food and learn some history about the place.

A few things I found out about Arco. It's powered off of atomic power from the INL plant on the outside of town. There is a graduate hill where each graduating class puts their number up there.  The "Atomic" burger was okay but nothing over the top for me.

Overall this was a great day adventure. I highly recommend it to check out and enjoy the place. I want to go back and explore the remaining caves with another person and a strong flashlight.