One way that MAF thanks its volunteers is to offer them a short ride in one of their Cessna 206 airplanes. Friday was our day to take to the skies –

We’d never ridden in a plane that was pulled out of the hanger by two guys. But we were looking forward to the adventure!

Gary got to be the copilot

and I was in the back seat busily documenting our trip –




(Must be the quilter in me, but I love these fields!)

It was a short flight, but so much fun. Gary never did take up the pilot’s offer to let him do the flying, but I think if we have the opportunity again to take to the sky in a small private plane, we’ll probably jump at the chance. Thanks, MAF! It was great!
With our flight under our belts, we were ready for the rest of our Idaho Adventure. We decided to check out a couple of the scenic drives that are nearby – so be prepared – many windshield shots to follow!
I hadn’t really seen much of the surrounding area, having flown into Boise and then had pretty much stuck to the main thoroughfares through Nampa. So right away, I was busy snapping –

It started out pretty “regular”, but soon the distant mountains began to make an appearance –

Soon we were in those mountains –

And then we were at the Snake River (which forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon in this area).

(Can you tell I was pretty enamored with the reflections?????)

And while the scenery was beautiful, I couldn’t resist at least one macro shot….

From Hell’s Canyon we were heading east to McCall and the lovely drive along the Lower Cascade Lake which would take us back to Nampa. We had to do a fair bit of back-tracking, and decided to take a short cut that (on the map) looked like it would save us some time. Since we could tell it was a dirt road we even asked a local fellow if it was pretty good road. He said, “Well, it’s a little rough on this side of the mountain, but once you get to the top the road is good.” Since it was a day for adventures, off we went. The name of the road? Kleinschmidt Grade. (The operative word here is GRADE.)

Can you see the road we traveled, cutting along the side of the mountain…..
But we made it to the top-

The trip down the other side was pretty tame compared to the drive up –

Good News – Trees to catch us
Bad News – I was on the edge side instead of the mountain side.
We did eventually make it into the valley

and the rest of the ride to McCall and points south was much less heartpounding.

We were beginning to run out of day, but were glad that we persevered and made it to the Lower Cascade Lake.

We certainly only scratched the surface of the beauty that is Idaho, but what we were able to get to was great!

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You know there are more pictures!
MAF Flight
Drive to Hell’s Canyon
Kleinschmidt Grade
Cascade Lake