3
OF THE BEST
HIGHLIGHTS
Yellowstone Bear World
Self-proclaimed “Awe-mazing” bear park in
Rexburg where, unusually, you can feed the bears from your own picnic basket. For an extra $48 you can handfeed the baby bears. Come on, Booboo!
White-water rafting
There are many venues for this in Idaho but the best is Cascade Raft and Kayak on
the Payette River north of Boise. The company is run by Tom Long whose sons trained to Olympic level.
World Center for Birds of Prey Headquarters of the Peregrine Fund, this world- class centre for conservation is 20 minutes’ drive from Boise. You can see young raptors being trained and get up close to avian predators including hawks, condors, eagles and owls.
TOP: Sun Valley Lodge LEFT: Mountain biking
BELOW: Yellowstone Bear World IDAHO
Inspired by the late, great Mr Hemingway, I decide to try my hand at sport shooting. The local gun club is a short drive or reasonable walk from the resort and inclusive packages are available for guests. With infinite patience and a deadpan twinkle, manager JC Dovey walks us through safety rules and technique before handing me a Beretta 20-gauge semi-automatic shotgun. “Pull!” An orange disc arcs through
the air, seems to float for a moment and I tug the trigger. I fear I’ve wounded something in Wyoming as the target lands untroubled by my shot. Twelve more misses and my forearms tremble with the effort of supporting the gun. Eyes to the barrel, crack, kickback in my shoulder and a contained whoop from JC. Finally! Out of 35 targets, I hit one – less Ernest Hemingway, more Bert and Ernie – but there is something strangely zen about the sport given the presence of a deadly weapon. Torn between spending the
Anywhere you go in Idaho you can have the grandest of nature more or less to yourself
evening luxuriating in my enormous elegant suite or taking advantage of everything the resort has to offer, I compromise by flipflopping down to the warm outdoor sea-salt swimming pool. X-shaped, I floated on my back, staring into the star-freckled night, until the call of the Jacuzzi proves
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travelweekly.co.uk 5 November 2015
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