 Welcome to Idaho! Greetings from Lowman Idaho. Today we're going on a short hike on a trail called Stargazer Trail. It's a beautiful moderate hike about three miles in and out. Elevation gain 600-ish feet. Supposed to be moderate but with the snow it's a bit of an effort just to make your way on the trail. So when we got here this morning the plan was to rent snowshoes but we learned that they don't rent snowshoes here in Lowman and so we decided you know what we'll get to the trail assess the situation if we can make it without snowshoes we'll do it if not we'll go back. Luckily we met a couple they were here cross-country skiing but I think they turned back where they probably skied down earlier. So it seemed like they were familiar with the area and they told us that we should be fine. Snow is not knee-deep so we can make it and so far so good. I mean it's really pretty out here all of the trees covered in snow and the trail is pretty well marked they have blue signs and poles all the way and I think right now as I'm speaking we're probably halfway to the top. So very excited to take you with us and I apologize I'm not able to open my eyes and look at the camera because there's a lot of snow but looking forward to to show you the view from the top and maybe show you around the yurt. My calves are definitely doing some work here. I'd say it's important to make sure that you don't over overdress sometimes so you don't want to be sweating too much when you're hiking so I popped open my jacket and then making sure that I'm nice and comfy but a little bit of post-hulling we're having a good walk. We can see the yurt from up here we just have a bit of climbing to do to get there and so if there's no one there we'll give you tour of the yurt. If not we'll just show you from outside and then I'm going to talk a little bit about how to make a reservation if you are interested. This is a backcountry yurt and it's named Stargaze. It's managed by the Department of Parks and Recreation and that's where you can make a reservation if you want to make a reservation online. They also have a phone number and they have an email if you want to reach out for some more information. Now for the reservation online we're gonna go right here and that's going to take us to a list of regions in Idaho that you can reserve campsites for. So we want to look for Idaho City Yurts and then you can click check availability. So there is a map right here that is super helpful it's going to show you all of the yurts that are in this area it's an interactive map and you can even see a list down here. So we're interested in Stargaze yurts so you go to that and then you click enter dates and that is going to give you an option to specify your arrival date. So let's pick something for February and let's say we are staying for one night you can check availability. So there isn't really any spot available for these dates because they book very quickly so you have to make your reservation months ahead of time so even if we go next two weeks March April like the next availability is up until April. So if it's a place that you want to go to you want to make sure that you are reserving as soon as you can and then you can specify how long you want to stay there for your arrival date and all of the details. It looks like the price rate right here is 115 dollars per night and you can do some more reading to find out some more details about the site and the things that you should keep in mind before getting there and that's pretty much it it's a very easy process to make a reservation online. You see the the gates over there like that's a gate it's all buried under snow holy buckets we're getting to knee level knee deep how does it feel? I don't know we're just we're just debating whether it's worth it to get up to the earth it's just a couple of feet up it's getting really deep can't believe that the whole gate oh my god Alex crazy okay so we're not going up to the earth I don't want to wait through the snow definitely snow shoes if you want to do this it's just safer and better and easier whatever everybody's tamped down the trail but not going up to the earth also it's even a question of privacy you know if there are people there we may not be able to see the earth from the inside and so we're gonna get to the end of the trail here and then head back but this is this is fun so for this particular trip we did not bring our hiking bags just because the plan was not to really hike but we brought our new sea to summit bags the foldable compact bags and they are doing such a great job Alex is wearing his blue one and I have got my orange bag I'm using it to carry some water I've got an emergency kit I've got some camera gear it's doing a pretty good job it's not supposed to be super waterproof but it's holding strong what do you think of your bag they're fine for what they are they're certainly not like a 20 liter day pack or anything but for the sake of just lightweight travel bag they're not bad wow look at this tree there is a trail mark where motorized vehicles are not allowed and for some reason just when we got past that point it feels raw it feels like no one came here before and it's so pretty all of the trees are covered in snow it looks surreal to say the least it's uh getting a little bit too deep for my liking but I see the end of the trail what a beautiful day what a beautiful hike what a beautiful state to be in it was a little bit intimidating without snow shoes and without cross country skis but we're here we're happy we're pleased and this snow uh feels like heaven I'm not sure if you guys can see the years but it's all the way up there that's the route that we couldn't take up or that we didn't want to take up so and we actually spot two people over there skiers probably it's been just the two of us for the most part but we're always happy to see people we're making our way down and uh it's not bad I think we covered halfway down it's really pretty and the good thing is they do have blue signs everywhere so even if the snow is deep you can still spot the blue signs and that kind of help the other thing that helped is the couple that was behind us they skied up the mountain and so it just helps us you know to not have to wade in the snow go in the same way we came up and we do have a reservation at the lodge the package that we got includes the sleigh ride pretty exciting and the dinner so we wanted to hit the hot springs but I don't think we will have enough time to do that uh even though I was very much looking forward to it but we can do it tomorrow so yeah that's very much it we met back again with the the couple that we talked to at the trailhead and you know we had this nice conversation and they're a bit older and to me I don't know a lot of people in my environment who are of old age but they are still rocking it in the outdoors and hiking and skiing cross country skiing and doing all the cool stuff so it was really nice to to talk to them they were 73 and 66 I think and uh it's very inspiring when you see people like that so it was a happy moment for me today this is a photographer videographer best boy my shoelaces are picked up so much snow you want me to get it sure don't pull my laces off just cross the snow I was like oh he's hitting me in the leg I was like maybe my boot get out our elevation right here 6064 feet what a hike love it love it love it