Boise in the summer

When I originally found out I was moving to Boise, I did some research on what it was like. I was particularly interested in the summer temps as I didn’t want to move anywhere really hot. Google assured me that the highs averaged in the 90’s.

They lied. Most of July has been over 100 degrees. Although we don’t have humidity here in the high desert. And I’ve been told by native Idahoans that this is unusual.

As I write this, most of the West seems to be on fire. Dry conditions and high heat have contributed to extremely high risk fire conditions. I’ve been watching two large fires (Durkee and Cow Valley) which merged into one and has burned 200,000 acres so far. It’s about 85 miles from Boise. Most of the eastern side of Oregon is on fire - including multiple fires in Idaho. There’s a small fire about an hour north and also near Redfish Lake - a popular tourist summer destination.

Tonight I ran into a family from Richmond, VA while grabbing pizza. I had my Virginia t-shirt on. They said they’d just driven up and back to McCall and passed by a lot of burned area. If you’ll recall, I’ve posted several times about McCall and the beauty up there. Very sad.

The air quality has been pretty awful here as well. Pretty smoky, hazy. Can’t see the mountains. Lots of poor air alerts and allergies abound. Of course, I also hear from natives that this extent of fire and smoke is unusual. 😳

So if you’re thinking of visiting out West, now is not the time. I-84 has been shut down in Ontario, Oregon about an hour and a half way.

We did have some brief rainstorms come through - which you would think would provide some relief, but instead sparked more small fires from heat lightning.

On a better note, today the smoke was a little better in Boise and the temps were low 90’s. So I took the opportunity to walk a few miles at the Boise Greenway. The greenway runs about 25 miles along the Boise River. The section I walked was quite overgrown between the paved path and the river - so I only had a few glimpses. The park was chock full of rafters. And I could hear the voices, laughter and some music from the people floating the river. It’s a very popular pastime in Boise - to float the river. And opening day is much anticipated.

A large part of the greenway is shady. I only passed a couple of people walking. Mostly the path was full of electric bikes, electric scooters, bikers and the occasional skateboarder. The electric scooters made me shake my head as the people rode them at top speed along the path. To me, that defeats the purpose of being outside. I prefer a slower method that gives you time to enjoy nature quietly. I don’t get the point of going as fast as you can along the path.

This weekend is also the San Inazio Basque festival. Boise is home to one of the largest Basque populations outside of Spain. I didn’t make it to the festival, but hope to visit the Basque area downtown soon.

Back to traveling next week. My sister got me the Cadillac of carry on suitcases for my birthday. It has a cup holder and phone charger!

As always, thanks for reading. Stay cool!

GypsyJules