Tag: #Idaho

We woke up and the mosquito and fly swarms had subsided, with just a few flying about. The pups didn’t get their walks this morning because of this. The night before I had taken them on a walk down the road to see some old farming, equipment, and if I stopped and looked behind me, there was a swarm of mosquitoes trying to get to the back of my legs. Shout out to chemists, who created DEET.

We got to the Golden Spike National Historic Site visitor center just after they opened. It turns out they had two functional locomotives to simulate the historic event on May 10, 1869. The first train arrived around 10 AM, and the second closer to 11. It was really breathtaking to see these pieces of machinery in action, something we typically read about. Both of the originals had been scrapped (for a $1000 scrapping fee) but these re-creations were built to the same specifications.

I have always been incredibly impressed with the earliest explorers, the pioneers, and the vision that our forefathers had in this new country. A particular book comes to mind written by Simon Winchester called The Men Who United the States, the describes the influential characters andhow the United States was built from inception to modern times. We have traveled extensively across the west in a very modern, comfortable vehicle, and we are always amazed at the ruggedness of the terrain, as well as some of the inhospitable areas that Americans have built upon. One of the major advances for the United States was a completion of the transcontinental railroad. It brings tears to the eyes watching these engines operate. One can only imagine the hundreds of thousands of people to traveled around at 25-30 MPH in these now nonexistent lines.

We finished up at the visitor center and headed to our next stop. But along the way we found an audio tour of the site through the NPS app. There are 7 miles to the west with about a dozen stops, and 4 miles to the east with the same. Although sometimes I have a hard time with the National Park System and how crowded it is, they have been making some major strides with technology and I recommend using their app. Visiting the parks also seems to make a major difference when you’re outside of summer, high peak times.

We headed back eastward and drove through some very very beautiful towns. I LOVE rural America!!!’ This area was all settled by the Mormon settlers back in the 1800s, and the Victorian and early century homes and buildings are beautiful to look at. The drive-through Logan and over to Bear Lake was filled with fall colors and absolutely breathtaking.

We finally arrived at Fossil Butte National Park in the early afternoon. The visitor center is incredibly informative and has a massive timeline for all of the different periods that are demonstrated in the area. This particular region is an ancient sea bed, and the fossils contain turtles, fish, plants, and mammals from that particular timeframe. The park had this incredible little display to choose one of the fossil fishes and see it swim as a 3-D image that swam in the virtual lake. The Ranger gave us some tips for finding fossils (although you cannot collect them ), and told us that the elk were moving into the park. It took Kathy only a few minutes to find a large herd up on the lower slopes of the butte. We took the scenic drive to the top of the butte and actually did find some BLM camping at the top. If we had the FJ or a side-by-side, this area outside the park is filled with beautiful trails on BLM land. We decided not to camp here because our next stop was still about three hours away and we wanted to split the difference. We ended up stopping in a little town to get fuel and had a fantastic Chinese dinner. The pups were glad to walk on grass. We headed out of town and up into the hills where we found a beautiful campsite on my favorite type of land, BLM.

We have been carrying apples around for a period of time, and I finally got around to making an apple pie. It came out delicious. I had these visions of baking in the Dutch oven over a campfire while on this trip, but in all reality, the oven is easier, and gets around fire restrictions.

Here are some additional photos from the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250926-golden-spike-and-fossil-butte

Today was a busy day for parks because there were three of them very close together. We camped right near the Hagerman Fossil Beds, so we stopped there first. We talked to the Ranger at the site and he was filled with information about the fossils in the area. We noted that we have been to several other fossil beds in Oregon and Idaho as well, and he recommended that we see the human footprints at White Sands NP, which apparently are now the oldest known human evidence in North America at about 35,000 years old. Hagerman was a shared monument with the Thousand Springs State Park, and he explained that all of the area to the east was the basalt rock from the lava flows and was incredibly porous and filled with water. At the edge of the snake river all of this cascade down into the valley There are more than 1000 springs in that area.

The ranger relayed an interesting story as we were discussing the pioneers coming across the Oregon Trail. He told us of a local rancher that had a cow that was using a cowboy boot for a head scratch. The boot was protruding from the ground, and apparently it was from one of the pioneers from the mid 1800s that had died and was buried there. The body was exhumed and is being studied and will return to the monument, but It’s still just amazes us at the tenacity and the fortitude of the Pioneers that forged their way west.

Our second stop was a national historic site called Mindoka. This was actually a very interesting site as it was one of the internment camps that the US had created for the Japanese during World War II. The camp was monstrous, but we found it very interesting at how quickly the Japanese forged communities and built a very productive camp. Many had sold their homes and businesses (as required) and started again out here. For example, in the first year they planted and harvested enough to be self sustaining and in the next several years provide provided agricultural goods for other camps. They even had sports like swimming, baseball, sledding in the winter and other activities that they created out of a bare desert. It’s definitely one of the sad points in American history, however, the American spirit was large in those camps when it came to creating something out of nothing. And as it turns out, the Japanese brigade of volunteer soldiers was one of the most decorated brigades in the army in World War II. In the attached album, I’m gonna put some of the placards that were there, as they were very interesting.

Kathy stopped a couple in the parking lot who were driving a class C motorhome. It turns out they were from Tempe and have been traveling for the last four years on and off. We had some great conversations with them about travel, ways to find deals, and how to rent out our house. We actually contacted their agent and may move forward with this soon. Thanks Chris and Christine!!!

The next stop for the day was a city of rocks national historic site. The drive out to the site was absolutely breathtaking. We were seeing the fall colors on the side of the hills and within the canyons. The city of rocks is actually a site where the Oregon and California trails diverged. There are still inscriptions from the pioneers carved into the rocks or were written in axle grease. We actually did the driving tour through the city rocks and then down the western side for about 100 miles of dirt road; very desolate, but beautiful country. We decided to make this a long drive day, so we push forward to the next national historic site, the Golden spike to find a place to camp. We noted that there was camping at the lot beyond the visitors center, and we got there about sunset. This place, however, was probably the worst mosquito and fly infested place we experienced thus far on this entire trip. Kathy had six bites before she got out of the truck. That’s the desert for you.

Here are some additional photos from the day from Minidoka.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250925-minidoka

Here are some additional photos from the day from city of rocks.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250925-city-of-rocks

We had about 270 miles to drive to get to the next stop so we left Tuesday night to knock out an hour of driving through the pass. We found a fantastic campsite at a place in Idaho off the Salmon River called Bobcat Gutch. Lots of grass for the pups abd there were 6-8 free sites with fire pits. Maggie was in grass heaven.

We got up to a beautiful morning and headed the 190 miles to Craters of the Moon National Park. This is a place you probably don’t want to visit during the summer. They say that the rocks get up to 150°. The site is basically a very large area that collapsed millions of years ago and caused volcanic activity near the surface. It’s a really unique area to learn about lava, lava flows, and the different types of cinders. The park has a very nice drive and a couple of really interesting hikes to take you to some Cinder cones and lava spouts. They do have a visitor center where you can get passes to go into the caves and look at the bats. We opted out of that.

we finished the day camping in a boat ramp/camping area next to the snake river. The snake river is jammed up in this part of the canyon so it was definitely right from a full summer season. But there was a nice little stream. It was running behind the camp spot and the dogs were able to have some good walks.

Here are some additional photos from the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250924-craters-of-the-moon