The Bruneau Dunes are perhaps the most bizarre natural phenomenon in the state. Trapped in a low-laying basin just south of Mountain Home, they're thought to have originated during the Ice Age, in the aftermath of the Bonneville Flood. Unlike most sand dunes, those at Bruneau don't shift dramatically with the wind. They're trapped in the basin, and the highest peak stays at about 470 feet year-round.
Comprising 618 square miles of other-worldly lava-formed landscape, the Craters of the Moon National Monument is one of the strangest geographic areas in the entire country. Harsh, dry and largely barren, this craggily beautiful region has remained largely untouched by a humanity that never figured out a use for it. We visited one morning in late October, after a light layer of snow had covered the ground.
We enjoyed our self-guided walking tour of historic Idaho City immensely, but our favorite house didn't appear anywhere in the brochure. We decided to just call it the Crazy House, because it's among the most eccentric structures we've seen anywhere in the States.
