Three Island Crossing SP Idaho

The Oregon Trail crossed the Snake River here using 2 of the 3 islands in the river. Crossing the river here was a short cut and insured the pioneers that they would have good grass and plentiful water after they forded the river. There was a crossing further south that most travelers used but it was dryer and over grazed by the many thousands of wagons and traveling livestock that used it. The only problem with this crossing was that it was deeper and more dangerous. Life has always required risk but decisions made here between 1852 and 1906 sometimes proved to be fatal. We drove to an overlook of the 3 islands and took that picture. There is a winery next door that we felt obligated to visit. Oregon tomorrow.

Craters of the Moon day 3

Today we did the lava tubes. There are apparently dozens of them scattered throughout the lava field but we only had access to 2 of them. You might have heard about a fungal disease that affects bats. The rangers are very concerned that it could be spread to the bats in this park by us. Most of the lava tubes were off limits for that reason. There were no trails and the footing was treacherous in the caves but we survived. After the caves we hiked on a couple of the trails that we didn't have enough time to hike yesterday. We head further West tomorrow. This park is not on a lot of people's radar, consequently it has not been crowded. Plenty of parking at the trailheads and very few people on the trails. All in all a good stop. One more thing. It was 46° last night.

Craters of the Moon

We spent a good portion of today hiking some of the trails in the park. The lava was deposited in several eruptions starting 15,000 years ago. The latest was a mere 2,000 years ago. We had a discussion with a Ranger and he seemed to be convinced that the hotspot under the park wasn't done erupting. They have 4 seismometers located around the park and there has been some activity detected. He estimated 100 years. There are several lava tube caves scattered around the lava field. Hikers are allowed to enter 2 of then. That is on tomorrow's agenda.

Mountain View RV park, Arco Idaho

Fantastic drive today. Beautiful scenery and no traffic. I could drive in the middle of the road for miles. Arco is near the Idaho National Laboratory which is our center of nuclear research. Some of the 900 residents of Arco work there. We are here primarily to explore Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is 20 miles away. We were here once before with the kids, tent camping, and we didn't do much exploring. We have 2 full days here so we should be able to completely knock this park off  our list. That pic with the numbers painted on the rocks above town has an interesting story. Once a year there is a highschool reunion that includes every graduating class. Last year thousands of people attended. The class number painted on the rocks gets a new coat of paint until that becomes impossible. A cool tradition. More tomorrow.

 

Fairmont RV Resort, Anaconda Montana

Today we drove through Billings, Bozeman and Butte. Alotta Bs. When I booted up Miss Garmin this morning she said Interstate 90 was closed and that she needed to find another route for us. Google, Apple and Waze didn't know what the heck Garmin was talking about. There was a major resurfacing going on and we averaged 3 MPH for something like 1 hour. That's a pretty difficult math problem but the gist was we lost an hour. One interesting thing of note. We passed a train that was carrying Boeing 737 fuselages. Turns out they are assembled in Wichita, Kansas and then transported by train to Seattle for final assembly. There is an actual resort a 5 minute walk from this RV resort. There is a hot spring that feeds a big pool and there are 2 restaurants. We did the 5 minute walk and had a delicious dinner at one of them. We are in Idaho tomorrow.

Tongue River day 2

There are a lot of state parks associated with lakes. Generally speaking, lake parks don't have much to offer us, especially if we didn't bring the yaks. When I planned this trip, I was looking for a 300-mile day that ended in a park. That plan has been putting us in parks with nothing particularly interesting for us to do. That should come to a temporary end tomorrow. No more lakes for awhile. I did a ride this morning on a hilly dirt road that winds around the lake. We drove into Sheridan, Wy. (25 miles) for a few items that we were in need of, and we ate lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant. That was a first for us. What is Ukrainian food you ask? I'm not sure. It definitely isn't burgers and fries. That pic was taken on my ride this morning.

Tongue River SP Montana

There is an IMMENSE amount of undeveloped land in Wyoming. We were on Interstate 25 for about 100 miles and on both sides of the road there was no development. No buildings, no power lines, no dirt roads and very little livestock. Someone owned that land because there were fences. Probably some member of the deep state. This park is only a few miles into Montana. The Tongue River backs up behind a dam and the State Park is on that lake. This park and our last stop only have/had electricity at the sites. No water. We had to fill up our tank when we arrived at both places. Of course we had no idea where the potable water spigots were. To add insult to injury the approach roads into both parks were dusty, washboard, dirt roads. The poor Forester in filthy. We took these pics today. Interstate 25 was pretty lonely in places. We encountered a heard of Antelope near the park and Jenny and I drove around some to get views of the lake.