Things to Do in Eagle

The mission of the Idaho Botanical Garden has remained the same since its founding more than 25 years ago: to foster community appreciation and understanding of horticulture and natural conservation. Nestled in the Boise foothills, the facility's 33 acres house more than 14 themed gardens. Some feature carnivorous plants, native flora, or colorful and aromatic herbs, whereas others focus on rose varieties, succulents, peonies, and water-conserving plants. Garden staff use adjacent foothills for nature hikes and environmental education.

A day at the gardens may also include a snack at the Tea House or a trip to admire plantings on the roof of the Gathering Place gazebo. Pathways lined with Table Rock sandstone wander through the four quadrants of the green Celtic labyrinth, each representing one of the four seasons. In a separate Children's Adventure Garden, smaller visitors frolic in a colorful tree house and watch the ripple of fins at a koi pond. For self-guided family tours, the staff provide backpacks containing suggestions for things to see and do, as well as scavenger-hunt items, a magnifying lens, and binoculars so children can check whether that's really a Bubo virginianus slinking through the trees.

Prague-born Filip Vogelpohl kindled his passion for glass blowing within his Boise home garage. As his knack for flame-working increased, Vogelpohl left the garage and traveled the world, honing his craft under the tutelage of internationally renowned glass blowers. Now, Vogelpohl welcomes fledgling glass blowers into his studio for small group classes. He also invites spectators to watch the studio's artists as they shape molten glass and borosilicate into jewelry or vases, which then go up for sale in the gallery. On the first Thursday of every month, the furnaces keep firing until 9 p.m. during free glass-blowing demonstrations as a part of the First Thursday Art Walk.

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.

The coaching staff at Idaho Select Basketball fertilizes athletic growth and fosters competitive spirit through year-round youth basketball camps, academies, and tournaments. The Blue Chip Basketball Combine day camp strengthens budding players' skills on the court and includes an educational off-court class on the basics of college recruitment. Biannual three-on-three indoor tournaments test teams' mettle, and shooting camps teach backboards not to quiver when pelted with basketballs.

According to a profile by the Boise Weekly's Rachael Daigle, Tony Perreira's dream of growing the ranks of American curling enthusiasts began as " but a glimmer in one curler's eye." Now carving out a niche on the ice as the founder of Boise Curling Club, Perreira helps his band of talented leads, skips, and sweepers share their precise and entertaining skills at one of the Winter Olympics’ two most recently added sports. The club's coaches distill the complexities of their sport into easy to digest instruction and FAQs designed to answer curling inquiries better than the oracles found at every ice rink. The club provides all equipment aside from comfortable pants and layered clothing, and offers workshops focused on constructing your own curling shoes.

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.