Boise Outdoor Activities

TQ Speedway & Hobbies' warehouse hobby shop is infused with the earthy smell of a 5,000-square-foot miniature off-road racetrack, its intricate curves and jumps constructed from clay and topsoil. Remote-controlled trucks vault over gaps and skid around corners as their operators and grandstands full of action figures cheer on. More than 40 pit stations give visitors ample space to set up their 1/10th-scale rides for the day's races, and an AMB timing system allows racers to accurately track their lap times.

When recent budget cuts forced Treasure Valley to implement a pay-to-play program for high-school athletics, Jonathan Gonzales, Jeff Allen, Steven Caporale and Brett Hughes banded together to help aspiring athletes in need. Their donation-driven Farm Man Challenge tests competitors with lengthy races and farm-based obstacle courses while raising several thousand dollars each year to, according to KTVB, directly support high-school athletic programs. The annual event’s creators constantly tweak its matches, coaxing participants through new variations of multi-mile runs, corn-maze and obstacle navigation, and limbo contests against scarecrows. While only one male and one female finisher receive the honors of FarmMan and FarmWoman annually, each racer earns the ability to select the high school to which they donate.

Boise Nationals Soccer Club helps develop young soccer players from their first step onto the pitch to their first step onto a college campus. Formed exclusively for boys in 1986, the club has since merged with several girls' affiliates to create one of the state's most formidable coed soccer outfits. Today, 30 competitive teams play beneath its star-emblazoned logo.

The club's programs split player development into six categories, and its youth soccer league—formed in 2008—places pint-size dribblers under the guidance of professional coaches, who provide more in-depth instruction than the volunteer parents or scarecrows that supervise many other recreational sports teams. For players who blossom under the club's stewardship, college-placement programs are available to help hoist games to the next level.

At Shankz Glo-Par-Tee, larger-than-life dinosaurs, sea creatures, and volcanoes glow under black lights as guests play through 18 holes of miniature golf in the 6,000-square-foot facility. It can take about 30–40 minutes for players aged 3 and older to travel through the course’s glowing jungles, underwater worlds, and prehistoric locales, and even longer when they’re sporting Shankz’s ChromaDepth 3-D glasses, which inhibit the wearers’ ability to perceive the fourth dimension. In addition to mini golf, Shankz Glo-Par-Tee features a glowing arcade and themed party rooms where patrons can host birthday parties or private events.

At Fast Lane Indoor Kart Racing, low-riding Sodi go-karts, careen around the winding track at 40 miles per hour, powered by Honda GX270 and GX160 engines. These karts suspend drivers inches from the ground, which—according to staff—gives them the sensation of 80-mile-per-hour speeds without the hassle of putting a saddle on a cheetah. After a driving-and-safety briefing, riders don full-face helmets before starting the 10-minute race. Spectators can keep an eye on lap times on the electronic scoreboard and on monitors scattered throughout the facility, each measuring times to the thousandth of a second.