Did you know that spending time in nature helps keep your heart healthy, boosts the immune system, promotes better sleep, reduces stress, and sparks creativity? That makes me want to get outside right now!  I do love the outdoors and one of my rules is to spend at least a half hour outside every day no matter what.  In the middle of summer or winter that may be a quick half hour but it’s every day.

A good way to spend time outside is in a park: national, state, or local.  As a kid, I loved going to nearby national parks with my family.  As an adult, I have visited most of the national parks in the continental United States.  Idaho does not have a national park except for a remote corner of Yellowstone, but you don’t have to venture far from home to find state and local parks.  We’re featuring photos of some in this issue which I believe makes them hard to resist! 

I especially like a combination of waterfalls, rivers or lakes, trees, birds/wildlife, and nature walks in parks.  One example is Shoshone Falls Park.  The Falls are known as the Niagara of the West because, at 212 feet, they are higher than Niagara Falls!  I’ve been to Niagara Falls and they are spectacular but we can be proud of Shoshone Falls as they are just as spectacular especially at high water flow.  In my younger years, my family visited Shoshone Falls during the summer for extended family gatherings or for other group occasions.  Less interested in the other occasions as I approached my teen years, I would offer on the drive over to pretend I didn’t know them if my parents gave me a dollar. This offer required considerable thought by my parents as my antics could sometimes be challenging.  On the other hand, they had not previously paid for anything I had done for them so parsimony prevailed.  But I would pay them now if they were still here to go to the parks with me!

Friends of mine recently attended a birthday picnic at Clear Springs Park.  It’s a small, lightly used park with trees, birds, and a little nature walk that leads to a pond with trout and small sturgeon.  Going there was like going on vacation!

So don’t put off going to the parks.  You will enrich not only your own life but the lives of the people you love.

Priscilla Martens