Torrey, UT to Idaho Falls, ID
As a man who loves food and finds himself talking about food 90% of the time, I’m going to get ahead of myself a bit and just say one thing: In N Out Burger is the fast food America needs. Being from South Carolina, I am heartbroken that we don’t have this fine establishment here. Maybe I should start a petition to bring them to the east coast…
Anyways…as if this trip hadn’t put enough miles on our rental car so far (I think by now we were over 1,000), the next leg of our journey would put quite a bit more wear on our weak little Ford Escape EcoBoost (why it is called an EcoBoost when it only gets 20 mpg is beyond me!). We set out early from our hotel in Torrey, UT, grabbed some coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and then started out 8+ hour drive to Idaho Falls, ID. Before going on this trip, if you would have told me Utah would be my favorite state by the end of it, I would have thought you were nuts. But, hey, Utah really impressed us. The first portion of our drive was pretty bland. By this time we were exhausted and probably running on fumes. We had our minds set on getting to Idaho, a land we initially thought was just going to be a bunch of potato farms, by that night. Of course, we had to stop off in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area first. We stopped there because it was the only In N Out Burger we would be able to eat at before we flew back to Charleston, SC. (I’m sure Salt Lake City has a lot more to offer than just In N Out) After a delicious lunch, we took a little side trip to Nebo Loop Scenic Byway. This barely two lane road wound up a mountain and gave breathtaking views of some snow-covered mountains, tall birch trees, and a rushing river that followed the road back down the mountain. There were a lot of people camping, bicycling (I still don’t understand the whole biking uphill thing), or just picnicking by the river. At the end of the loop, there is a natural cave you can pay to explore as well. If we ever make it back to Salt Lake City, we will definitely want to spend a few days camping and exploring this area.
After that slight detour, we made our way north to Idaho. And when we got there, we were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was! There were so many rolling hills and the grass was oh so green. Looking out at the miles and miles of grass, I wondered which lucky person got to mow all of it. Then I saw the cows. Thousands and thousands of cows. I guess these people in Idaho are real beef and potatoes people. I can get behind that! We finally got to Idaho Falls and after dropping our stuff of in our room at the Sleep Inn (great hotel by the way), we headed to the downtown area and ate a great dinner at Smokin’ Fins. If you are ever in the area of Idaho Falls, we highly recommend stopping in for a few hours to see the place. It really is a cool town!
