Dunanda Falls

I run every Monday evening with a group of great ladies from the Idaho Falls Trail Runners. It's such a fun, diverse group. We have women who have run 100 mile trail races, and women who are just starting out. I love the 'everyone's welcome' approach the group takes. 

Mark and I decided to do a trail run to Dunanda Falls this summer. It's been on our bucket list for a few years. It's an area known for bears, so we wanted company. We had a whole group of the IFTR ladies join us. I was excited for Mark to finally meet some of them. 

We had a great day! The trail was awesome, and the waterfall and hot springs were spectacular! We thought we'd all run our own pace, and then group back up every mile or two. We saw very fresh bear tracks in the mud within the first few miles, so we decided to stay closer together. Then we had some hikers tell us they had just had an encounter with a bear about a mile up the trail (the same way we were heading). We all stayed together, made lots of noise, and it ended up being more fun that way anyways. We covered 18 miles in the most beautiful area. We would be running through the trees, and then all of a sudden the trail would open up to a huge meadow. We'd run a couple miles through the meadow, and then be back in the trees again. We had lunch, and soaked in the hot springs at the base of the waterfall. So cool! It's a hike/run I'd highly recommend for anyone who's been wondering about it.

We ran past the coolest ponds covered in huge lily pads!

Bear tracks!

So beautiful!

Georgina, Amanda, and Tricia

My favorite kind of run is one with lots of water crossings! This run had lots of them!
Georgina, Cassandra, Veronika, Amanda, Angie, Jen, and Tricia.

I love running with these fun ladies!

Mark was the lone man in our group!

We turned back to look at the view and realized that we had the Tetons behind us the whole time!

Dunanda Falls

Getting down to the base of the falls was an adventure!

The sight and sound were spectacular!

This is probably my favorite picture of the day! He had his own little hot pool. :)

The hot springs were amazing!

Heading out after lunch and a nice soak.

I love this picture of us crossing the river with the waterfall in the back. So fun!

I'm super glad we finally did this trail! I'm excited about some of the runs we have coming up too! Hiking/trail running is my addiction, and I'm glad I have lots of other crazy people to enjoy it with!