The little valley I live in!

In Idaho, we tend to refer to many of our areas as valleys.
We have many mountain ranges here in Idaho which makes for a lot of valleys.

There is Magic Valley (Twin Falls area), Treasure Valley (Boise and surrounding areas),
Mini Cassia Valley (Burley), and etc.

I live in what is called the Little Wood River Valley.

In the photo below,the mountain range you see beyond the foothills
is called the Pioneers.
This is where the water for this entire valley flows from.
It is collected into the Little Wood reservoir for storage.
It is the life blood of our area.

The photo below is facing north of town.

The Pioneers run to the east of us and end at the Craters of the Moon Natl. monument.

They run to the north and east of us and meet the Boulder mountains to the north,
which then creates the Big Wood River valley and that is where the
 Sun Valley Ski resort and the towns of Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue are located.
All of them are little mountain towns.

Sun Valley is definitely a resort town, filled with many awesome and very expensive shops.
Many of the rich and famous have homes there.

Here in my little town, we call that area the upper valley.

Many of the people in our town work there at various jobs

and it is where I worked for a few years as well.

If you squint and look real hard at the photo above I have put a little white 'here' to show

where our dairy farm was and where we lived for many years

before we crossed the highway and bought part of my grandfather's place
which is where we live now.

The photo below is facing east...
and there in the back ground is my little home town.

 If you put the last three photos end to end

you see most of the valley on the north side of the highway that divides it.

This picture below is me descending what we call Picabo Hill and coming down into town.

 If I stand and face southeast, this is the rest of the valley.

The little black 'here' shows where I live now.

The Craters of the Moon is to the east of us and so on the south and east

 of us are lava flows for miles.

  

With the mountains to the north and west of us and the lava flows to the south and east,

when people ask where I live I always say that I live on the edge

of Heaven and Hell.

The two extremes make for a beautiful valley.

And below is a photo of what we call Queen's Crown. It is a peak at the top of Picabo Hill.

The photo below is descending the other side of the hill into the little town of Picabo.

The gold medal skier Picabo Street was named after it.

My mother was raised in this teeny little Picabo.

 Picabo has a population of about 75.

Cattle grazing on the Queen's Crown Ranch.

Queen's Crown is an awesome landmark from any direction.

It can be seen for miles in two different directions.

In the photo below, it can be seen in the distance.

This was taken on my way home from my doctor appointment in Hailey.

I love, love, love this view!

It means I'm almost home!

I wanted to share this post with you so you can get an idea of the Idaho that I call home.

Idaho is a rural state with very few cities, and the cities we have are small cities.

Mostly, Idaho is made up of a lot of charming small towns set in little valleys like

the one I live in.

 I was born and raised all of my young life in Boise and love the city,

but this Little Wood River Valley is my home.