Ask us about potatoes but ignore our legalized BASE jumping.

It’s great you remember we’re the potato state, but let’s dig a little deeper and find out something you don’t know about Idaho – like that BASE jumping is legal year round here. Daredevils from around the world come to the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls where they parachute 500 feet into the Snake River Canyon below.

Repeat the U-da-hoe joke.

We all know it. Please, do not stoop this low. It’s unoriginal and so not funny.

Ask us if we fear wild gorillas.

What kind of question is that! No, we don’t, and we don’t know what’s wrong with the rest of the country.

Drive on I-84 from Ontario, OR to Salt Lake City, UT and say you’ve been to Idaho and that it’s ugly.

Well, you’ve been through it at 80mph (yes, that’s the speed limit) but you didn’t stop at the Snake River Canyon, or venture more than a truck stop away from the freeway to see anything. That’s as bad as judging the state of California by your five-hour layover at LAX!

Ask if we know the one other person you’ve met from Idaho.

Idaho’s a pretty big state – the 14th largest in the country! On top of area, the Boise valley alone is home to over 600,000 people. But if you think I might know John from Idaho, ask away, I could and I might!

Insult Idaho cuisine.

There aren’t many Idaho-specific dishes, but we love our famous Ice Cream Potatoes and tater-inspired treats like Idaho Spud Bars. Beyond those sweet things, there’s also our Finger Steaks and Fry Sauce! (Yeah, Utah, we know you think you invented fry sauce, but we’re not convinced.)

Judge the whole state by Napoleon Dynamite.

Some of Idaho looks like small town Preston, but most of it doesn’t. People tend to forget that there are enormous differences between Idaho’s regions. From the Panhandle to the Palouse, Hells Canyon to the Sawtooths, Sagebrush Steppe to Thousand Springs, there’s forest, mountains, volcanic desert, river valleys, farmland, wine country, and more. The further you go, the more the countryside changes in surprising ways.

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Confuse us with Iowa or Ohio.

Okay, Idaho and Iowa start with the same letter, and their capital city names are both French in origin (Boise from Les Bois and Des Moines). But Ohio?! Not much in common besides lots of vowels and soft consonants in the name! Iowa and Ohio are 1,400 and 2,000 miles from Idaho, and as different (and as far) from Idaho as New York is from New Mexico.

Ask “What do you even do in Idaho?”

Excuse me? What do you even do anywhere? Live and work, spend time with friends and family? Go out to restaurants, bars, and movies? We do all that. We also hike, ski, hunt, fish, mountain bike, rodeo, river raft, backpack, dune sled… it’s hard to decide what to do with all those options!