INDIAN CREEK CHRISTMAS LIGHTS - CALDWELL IDAHO

We were looking for beautiful Christmas lights display and we heard about this place called Indian Creek in Caldwell Idaho,  so we checked it out. Oh my goodness it's so beautiful, you can feel the spirit of Christmas. The lights were superb, thousands or millions of beautiful lights all over. Whoever did it I must say " You did an excellent job". 

The place was packed during our visit but I dont care. I love it in there, if only its near from us, i will be there every night lol.

AVALANCHE LAKE - GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

We went to Montana last September to watch Incubus Concert, and since we were there already we went to Glacier National Park and hiked up to this beautiful lake. Avalanche Lake is so beautiful. It was a 2 miles hike and it took us more than an hour to get there. We are not hikers so we were so slow we get tired so easily lol. The hike was really worth it, it was so cloudy, gloomy and rainy that time. My photos don't do justice on how beautiful it is. Im pretty sure if the weather wasn't like this, pictures will turns out more prettier than the photos i took.

Avalanche Lake is located in Glacier National Park, in the U.S. state of Montana. Avalanche Lake is southwest of Bearhat Mountain and receives meltwater from Sperry Glacier. Avalanche Lake is a 2 miles hike from the trailhead along the Trail of the Cedars. The lake sits at the base of 8694-foot Bearhat Mountain, which rises almost 4800 feet above the lake towards the northeast. The mountain dominating the view towards the south is 7886-foot Little Matterhorn. If you look closely at the cliffs and mountains that surround the lake you'll notice several long waterfalls plunging hundreds of feet as they make their way towards the shore. Many of these waterfalls originate from Sperry Glacier, which rests beyond Little Matterhorn and can't be seen from the lake.

TABLE ROCK - BOISE IDAHO

Table Rock is a mountain pillar in the western United States, located just south-east of downtown Boise, Idaho, in the foothills of the Boise Range of the Rocky Mountains. Its summit elevation of 3,650 feet above sea level is 900 feet above the city center.

I love Autumn

I only have few autumn photos because the snow came so early. I thought we still have time to go for a place where the leaves were changing colors. I was wrong before we knew the snow came. I remember this time of the year last year its beautiful everywhere. The colors and everything but now its lifeless the leaves were gone already. Gone too soon lol. Anyways these are the few photos i took. Its not the best but its beautiful.

Snowgraphy

So we had snow in October, wow its too early for snow. Its still autumn for us lol but ohh well we woke up with all white surroundings, we dont expect that. 

All of the photos were taken by iPhone 11 Pro Max, no edit. 

iPhone 11 Pro Max Photo

Its the time of the year where the leaves changed its colors. Its fall season, ahhh i cant believe it. I am not yet ready its getting so cold now. The good thing about fall/autumn is the surroundings is so beautiful. I love it :)

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Went here because we wants to do stargazing see the moon and some planets thru the the telescope in this park. Sad to say it was so cloudy and had a lil bit of rain when we get there. Nothing is visible in the sky, sometimes it got cleared and the sun came out but only for few minutes and cloudy again. Still we enjoy the place because its beautiful. I know for sure we will go back for some stargazing in the future. 

Bruneau Dunes State Park is a public recreation and geologic preservation area featuring large sand dunes and small lakes, located northeast of Bruneau and fifteen miles (24 km) south of Mountain Home, Idaho. The state park is the site of North America's highest single-structured sand dune which is approximately 470 feet (140 m) high.The park encompasses 4,800 acres (1,900 ha) and features the Bruneau Dunes Observatory, where visitors can use a telescope for stargazing. Located in 27608 Bruneau Sand Dunes Rd, Bruneau, ID 83604.

Below are the photos i took with my phone.

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Bruneau Dunes State Park

Its beautiful right? :D :D

JUMP CREEK FALLS - IDAHO

So we heard about this falls the "Jump Creek Falls". We googled it and photos looks great so we decided to visit. It was in the middle of May when we visited it and there was rain during that week. It was a lil bit chilly also.

This place is so beautiful, when we get there we choose to hike upper area to see the falls first and then after we planned to go down to the tip of the falls. Hiking up was really a struggle specially when you dont have the right shoes for hiking. It was so steep and a the soil is a lil dry. I am so afraid that i will roll over to the cliff. I had to stop so many times trying to figure out every step i made lol. I did not made it near to the falls as i am really scared lol.

After that hike we decided to go down to the other trail to see the falls closely. As usual we are not prepared, since it rained that week the volume of the water was a lil bit strong and the water was almost above my knee. By the way you have to crossed that water first before you can actually see the falls. The water was cold and we dont have extra shoes with us :(. We backed out and just better luck next time. 

We really want to go back and swim in there because a lot of people do swimming during summer. It was such a beautiful place. We love it there :)

Jump Creek Falls is a waterfalls locate in Owyhee County, just to the southwest of the city of Marsing, Idaho. The falls are accessible by a short, ​¹⁄₄-mile hike from a lower parking lot, while an upper parking lot offers several trails that explore the falls and surrounding areas.

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

Jump Creek Falls

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

Another dream come true, seeing Yosemite in person is just so ahhh i cant contain it. I am just so happy to finally see it with my own eyes, those big rocks and a lot of falls, it was so awesome. 

Yosemite National Park is an American national park located in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California, bounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 747,956 acres (1,168.681 sq mi; 302,687 ha; 3,026.87 km²) and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.

On average, about 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the 7 square miles (18 km²) of Yosemite Valley. The park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing 5 million visitors for the first time in its history. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System.

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral and oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% are within Yosemite. The park contains suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today.

The name "Yosemite" (meaning "killer" in Miwok) originally referred to the name of a renegade tribe which was driven out of the area (and possibly annihilated) by the Mariposa Battalion. Previously, the area had been called "Ahwahnee" ("big mouth") by indigenous people. (Wikipedia)

We still wanna go back and do some hike. Its so beautiful right? I know my picture does not do the justice of how beautiful this park. I am only using my phone. But still its beautiful. :) 

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, CA

I saw this bridge before when we went cruising (see here) This time we drove across the bridge and it was fun, got to see the different angle of this bridge. I still cant believe I'm seeing this bridge for real. I just saw this bridge on movies before.

We were blessed to have a beautiful weather that day. I was a bit worried at first because when we crossed different bridge it was so foggy, you cant see far distance. I was worried the Golden Gate Bridge will be foggy too but nahh the weather was perfectly fine :) and captured beautiful photos. 

Swan Falls Dam, Idaho

Swan Falls Dam is a concrete gravity type hydroelectric dam on the Snake River, in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located near Murphy, Idaho.

The dam was built in 1901 to generate electricity. It is the oldest hydroelectric dam on the Snake River. In the 1990s the original power plant was replaced with a new one. The dam was built with fish passage facilities, but they proved to be very poor in performance. For this reason, among others, the C. J. Strike Dam, built upriver from Swan Falls Dam in the early 1950s, was not equipped with fish passage facilities. Thus the two dams combined to become the first artificial barrier to anadromous fish migration up the Snake River. Today Hells Canyon Dam is the first total barrier to fish migration on the Snake.

The dam and its reservoir lie within the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. The dam and power plant were listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 

We checked out this area last year before the winter season start because we were new here in Idaho and we just kinda exploring beautiful places. A friend told us that Swan Falls Dam is beautiful. We went checked it out, but we dont go straight to the Dam as there are a lot to see along the way, there are a lot of beautiful Canyons. I remembered we went off road and we saw the Snake River. It was a lil bit far from the main road. Our car is blue and it became brown after that because the road was so dusty lol, and bumpy also haha.

The Kelpie, Mythical Scottish Water Horse

During our trip to Scotland, we went to Falkirk District to see the Kelpies. We rode a train from Edinburgh. Its just less than an hour. So what is a Kelpie?

Kelpie, or water kelpie, is the Scots name given to a shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is able to adopt human form. Some accounts state that the kelpie retains its hooves when appearing as a human, leading to its association with the Christian idea of Satan as alluded to by Robert Burns in his 1786 poem "Address to the Devil".

Almost every sizeable body of water in Scotland has an associated kelpie story, but the most extensively reported is that of Loch Ness. Parallels to the general Germanic neck or nixie and the Scandinavian bäckahäst have been observed. More widely, the wihwin of Central America and the Australian bunyip have been seen as counterparts. The origin of the belief in malevolent water horses has been proposed as originating in human sacrifices once made to appease gods associated with water, but narratives about the kelpie also served a practical purpose in keeping children away from dangerous stretches of water, and warning young women to be wary of handsome strangers.

Kelpies have been portrayed in their various forms in art and literature, including recently as two 30-metre (98 ft) high steel sculptures in Falkirk, The Kelpies, completed in October 2013. (Wikipedia)

I missed UK, i missed Scotland. I still wanna go back there, theres a lot to explore :)