Hidden Lakes Reserve

Surprisingly this is in the middle of a residential neighborhood

I've lived in Boise since 1977, except for a couple of years that I spent overseas. Almost all of that time I've lived in the West Bench area, just off of McMillan Road. I've driven by the Hidden Lakes Reserve hundreds, probably thousands of times. There's a sign there, and a parking lot, but it is on the edge of the bench so it's below the level of the road and you can't really see it as you drive past. It's clearly a preserved natural area. I've always wondered what was there. It's close to my house so I could easily go for a walk there. Unfortunately there's a sign that is clearly visible as you drive by that says no dogs allowed. Since virtually all of my neighborhood walks are with Abby, that meant Hidden Lakes was off limits.

Well an opportunity finally came up. Sandy was in Illinois being a gramma with Brooklyn and Warren. Abby and I were home, but Sandy had made an appointment for Abby at doggie day care. She needed to go in for her once-a-month bath and nail clipping. Yes, we could do it but Abby doesn't like it and the people at Escape the Crate do a good job. So when I dropped her off I had four hours free. I decided to finally check out Hidden Lakes Reserve.

Wild blue flax

I stared at the norht side of the reserve, off McMillan Road. There was a nice bridge across the canal from the parking lot. I decided to head east even though the trail looked a little sketchy. Surprisingly it only went as far as Maple Grove. I expected a loop trail that circled the lakes but that wasn't the case. I'd only been walking for five minutes and I had to head back to the starting point.

Circling around the west side of the reserve there was a nice trail and it went all the way down to the parking lot at the south end of the reserve off of Maple Grove. The lakes were pretty and while in the reserve, other than for the sound of traffic on Chinden, it was easy to feel like you were not in the city at all. There were lots of wildflowers too. Overall I thought it was impressive that an area like this existed in the middle of a residential area, especially one that I had lived in for the last forty years. Kudos to the city of Boise for preserving an impressive natural area.