I never imagined myself spending an entire summer out West. When I first arrived in Ashton, ID, I will admit I was a little nervous about how I would spend all my free time. I never could have expected that I am now nervous about not doing all the things I want to do before I go home. I am about halfway through my internship and time has flown by since I arrived in Idaho.
Ashton is perfectly located one hour away from Yellowstone National Park, and one and a half hours away from both Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park. I actually have yet to explore Yellowstone or the Tetons as I keep finding too many fun and unique experiences to do closer to home, though I plan to hike in the Tetons this weekend.
Some of the cool experiences closer to home include floating and fishing the Henry’s Fork river, attending my first rodeo, and hiking (and sometimes riding) different trails in Harriman State Park. Harriman State Park was actually once privately owned until its owner donated the entirety of his land to the state of Idaho for the purpose of creating a publicly accessible park!
Pictured left: me learning how to fly fish; pictured center: Mesa Falls; pictured right: horseback riding through Harriman State Park!
I also try to go to Victor, ID every Thursday to watch Music on Main, which is a weekly music festival with local artists and delicious food trucks. The first time I went, there was a Brazilian samba group performing and it was truly one of the best performances I’ve ever seen; they even taught me how to dance!
A final unique experience I’ve had here was being in the Fourth of July parade on a HFF float with the other interns! I have never been in a parade before, but after this weekend I would certainly do it again. It was so much fun seeing how excited the community was for this parade, and the little kids were even more excited when we threw candy at them. The theme of our float was “Fly Fishing from the Past into the Future”, and we ended up winning first place for our decorations! It’s events like this that make me love living in a small town, because the sense of community and togetherness in a small town is a truly wonderful feeling.
Pictured left: our float making its way down Main Street during the parade; pictured right: the members of the winning float
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