August 30, 2007

August 30, 2007

A few blocks down the road is the headquarters for Hagerman Fossil Bed National Monument. The visitor center is tiny and contains only a few of the many fossils found in this area from the Pliocene period 3.5 million years ago. The actual Monument is the eroded southern bluff of the Snake River. This fossil bed is famous for a zebra-like ancient horse. The Hagerman Horse is now the state fossil of Idaho. This visitor center is a two-fer. It is also the temporary headquarters for the new Minidoka Internment National Monumeny. Minidoka was one of ten remote relocation camps in the west where Japanese-Americans were interred during WWII.

After our brief stop at this visitor center we decide to bypass both nearby monuments and drive east on RT. 30 along Idaho’s Thousand Springs scenic drive. It turned out to be a good choice. Following the Snake River’s southern bank, we are quickly rewarded with what looks like good-sized waterfalls spilling out of the middle of the northern cliff face. They are the largest springs I have ever seen. And this is the dry season! I can’t imagine what they would look like in the spring. From interpretative signs we learned that the Snake River used to run farther north but was pushed southward by a series of lava flows. Snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains flows thru this spongy lava and spills into the Snake. There is so much cold spring water that they have dozens of commercial trout hatcheries along the river here.

This scenic drive ends for us in the town of Twin Falls where we view the Snake River cascading over Shoshone Falls. It is beautiful scenery.

In this area the Snake River runs thru a deep canyon. Evel Knievel made this gorge famous when he attempted to jump it in his rocket-powered motorcycle many years ago. Looking at the size of the canyon, no wonder he failed.

We leave the Snake River and head north on Rt. 93 to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This park is the largest pile of lava on the planet. As far as you can see are lava flows and cinder cones, and also a couple rare splatter cones. Even after seeing lava now in every western state, I am still amazed how volcanically active the world still is. This park got its name from a National Geographic article written by an early explorer entitled, “A trip to the Moon.”

After getting into some long conversations with a couple other travelers, we run out of time and decide to stay at the park campsite. Where else can you spend the night surrounded by lava?