It’s been much longer than I intended since my last post. We are having a pretty busy summer, and I have been to two major horse shows with my wife in June. So, I thought in the interest of staying connected, that I would make a little post about our trip to Nampa Idaho for Sheri’s Region 4 Arabian Championship horse show.

Sheri left for the show on Tuesday, June 19, but I had an important meeting and did not leave until Wednesday afternoon of the 20^th. It’s just under 400 miles from our place in Utah to the show grounds in Nampa. I thought I might share a little bit about what we have been doing this summer so far and show you around the area  around Nampa. Nampa is a western suburb of Boise.

About 220 miles north of the Salt Lake City area the highway route to Nampa (Interstate 84) generally follows the Snake River all the way to the Oregon border and then a little way into Oregon before the route finally departs once and for all from the river. For much of the way there are many farms and ranches, but the Snake River Valley in western Idaho has now become known for its outstanding wines.

 

Obviously, we were there for the horse show, so here are some looks at the show grounds as well as one of Sheri’s classes in which she one a Reserve Championship in the region (second-place).

Nampa has a really wonderful facility with a nice show ring and a couple of open air, covered practice arenas adjacent to the main show building. Additionally, there is a wonderful restaurant at the south end of the building that has a pretty diverse menu.  Napa is a fairly small town, so there are other places to eat nearby without having to travel very far at all. This facility is just off of Interstate 84, and there is plenty of hotel lodging within just a few blocks of the show facility.

 

Sheri had a day off on Friday, so we decided to head down to the wine country a little way out of Nampa. There’s a winery that we like down near the Snake River called Sainte Chapelle. They have a beautiful facility and offer tours as well as tasting samples. They also have a lot of snacks and homemade hors d’oeuvres. Southwestern Idaho has an abundance of sunshine with really rich soils due to ancient volcanic activity in the general area. So as you can imagine, they make some pretty nice wines here. We spent the morning sampling different wines to decide what we wanted to bring home, and then we decided to have some hors d’oeuvres with some wine before driving back to Nampa.

After having a glass of wine as well as having sampled five different flavors, we needed some time before we hit the road back to Nampa. So Sheri stepped out onto the patio to kick back and do some reading on her phone, while I decided to go take some photographs of the grounds. Here are some photos of the Sainte Chapelle winery and the beautiful grounds. The winery also sponsors bands on the weekend in the evening, and sometimes they have large shows down on the grassy area below the main building.

 

For those history and geography buffs, the Snake River is one of the principal rivers in the United States. Its headwaters are up in the Grand Teton Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. The snake River flows down out of the mountains and then generally travels westward through Idaho and forms part of the border between Idaho and Oregon. From there it eventually flows into the Columbia River which then flows directly to the Pacific Ocean. The first non-natives to see the snake River were likely Lewis and Clark in their expedition to find the proverbial “Northwest passage” in the early 1800’s. In fact, Interstate 84 is a pretty historical route as it follows the Oregon Trail route fairly closely across Idaho and then up into Oregon.  (As a side note, if you continue on I-84 into Oregon, there is a wonderful musuem and National Historic park in Baker City dedicated to the Oregon and Mormon Trails.)

I had some time early Saturday afternoon, so I decided to take a drive farther down into the wine country towards the actual Snake River. There’s a little town named Marsing on Idaho Route 55 just on the west side of where the highway crosses the Snake River. I found a nice little park here, and so I pulled in for a walk and to take a few photos of the area. Here is what I found.

I hope you enjoyed the photos from our trip to Nampa, Idaho and our little sightseeing adventure in the beautiful wine country along the Snake River.  Thanks for stopping by