Advertisement
Published: July 22nd 2017
Edit Blog Post
DSCF3808
from under the bridge in Twin Falls Mileage – 214.5
We started the day with a cooked to order breakfast then we headed out. Our first stop was the overlook we missed last night. In the process of getting there, we missed seeing that there was another “sister” overlook on the other side of the highway and we drove right by. We didn’t realize it until we walked under the bridge and saw that we could go up the other side. Oh well. We did get some pretty pictures from the area under the bridge of the gorge and the waterfalls. Well, the waterfall we first saw yesterday was the one we could see from the bridge… We then climbed up the stairs and walked halfway across the bridge to take pictures. The bridge vibrated each time a big truck came over. There is a golf course down in the bottom of the river gorge. If you didn’t stay on the green in many of the holes, well, you would be in the drink.
I drove out of town and headed to Craters of the Moon Park. On the way we realized we weren’t too far from the ice cave and I really wanted to go
DSCF3841
The small high school to BUT… You could only go on a guided tour, you couldn’t do a private tour or a self-tour. The tour was an hour that we didn’t have in addition to being around 32 degrees the whole time. We just were not properly prepared. Oh well, we left it in the dust “literally” and continued on our route. The haze in the area is thick and we learned later that it is coming from the fires in California. The weather has been great, but the haze has not. We are missing some of the great pictures because of the haze.
We went thru a town named Carey, Id. Pop 604. We saw the high school. It looks like a one room building, ok, maybe a 3-4 room one, maybe not. They didn’t have a football stadium but did have a rodeo area. Susan and Pam said that they probably only had 2 teachers to teach all grades and multiple classes. It was the smallest high school I’ve ever seen.
We made it to the park and headed in. Susan’s national park pass got us in, and we started on our other worldly journey. Our first stop was to
DSCF3875
lava right up next to the road climb the hill. I had my sandals on but made it – just constantly got little rocks in the shoes. We got some great pictures of the lava. Our next stop was more lava fields that we hiked in and around, then we stopped at the lava cone. I looks like a black mountain about 200 ft tall. Wow! We hiked to the top to get views of the rift and fissures that cause the eruptions. The last one was about 2000 years ago. Seems this whole state was active back about that time. It was a long, long steep climb in the heat to get to the top but it was worth it. There was a tree on the top of the mound and the wind was howling. How it gets enough nourishment to survive is beyond me. We drove to other spots and did short hikes, but my favorite was the last stop were we hiked through the lava fields. We saw caves (one that Pam climbed down into) and a big lava tube that we all climbed into. Pam and I hiked back into it for a bit. Susan couldn’t go in as far because she only
DSCF3915
smooth areas in the lava had her sunglasses. It was too dark to see with them and she was too blind without them. Walking over the lava was treacherous and you had to be able to see each step. While I was waiting for Pam to adjust for a picture, something fell on my shoulder. I was scared to look in case it might be bat …. But luckily it was just water from the roof. Oh, it was so cool down there, we didn’t want to come back out into the heat.
After the lava tubes, we were hot, hungry and tired so we drove back up to the visitor’s center and ate our lunch in the air conditioned van. Then we took off down the road. We spent so much time in the park that we didn’t have time to go to the back side of the Grand Tetons, so we drove on towards Idaho Falls (our stop for the night).
We passed through Argo where they have a big hill outside of town with numbers all over it. It seems that at graduation, the class climbs up and paints their number on the hill. This started in 1929. There were
DSCF3925
the hill we hiked lots of numbers on the hill.
Our next short “drive thru stop” was at Atomic City. We saw the Atomic Bar and the old shelters. The population now is only 25 but there were never many folks there.
Our drive into Idaho Falls was uneventful and when we got into town we found the eagle falls statue (eagles and a man-made waterfall in the middle of a traffic circle), then we went to find the Idaho Falls. They were pretty but not as impressive as many of the falls we have seen. There was a Japanese Garden beside it that we also walked thru. Our next stop was the hotel – Fairfield Inn and Suites and yes, another free night.
We dressed quickly and took off for dinner. Pam had looked online and found the D’Railed restaurant and we headed that way. We drove right by it. It was an old house in the middle of a warehouse-like district. We debated going in, but were glad we did once inside. The service, well,… She came to take our order and turns out she gave us the lunch menu, then she gave us the dinner menu and then
DSCF3931
we made it to the top. didn’t come back. The food was good though, and we enjoyed our meal. During the meal we planned some of our next few days in the national parks and rearranged things so that we could have an extra day there. What does that mean, many of the reservations I’ve made have to be moved, cancelled,… Back to the hotel and lots of online looking, phone calls,… and it was accomplished. Only sad thing is we have to pay for another night. It just worked out better to stay in West Yellowstone and well, no hotels with points there were available, so we are paying that night (I’d have to look up what night that is going to be – my brain is toast).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 30; dbt: 0.069s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb