Summer afternoons in Boise belong to the river, and the City of Trees, a name from the French for wooded, fits a green river corridor running through high desert. About 238,000 people live in the city, with a metro near 860,000 that includes Meridian and Nampa. The Boise River Greenbelt is the spine of daily life, with people biking, walking and floating the river. Foothills trails at Camel's Back and Table Rock start almost in town, and Bogus Basin has skiing in winter.
Downtown has the Basque Block, the Capitol and the Old Idaho Penitentiary, and Julia Davis Park holds the zoo and museums. Treefort Music Fest in March and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival through summer anchor the calendar. Housing has climbed well above what long-time locals remember, and homes sell in days. Violent crime is below the national average but rose about 9 percent last year, and car break-ins are the usual complaint. Summer heat, wildfire smoke in late season, winter inversions and cold river water are the things to plan around.
