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Published: September 18th 2007
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Posted by: Onaxthiel: Driving through the mountain passes along the Hoback river made one thing clear to us, if it hadn’t been before. Fall is here in the northlands, or at least in the high elevation portions of them. The fall colors were in full bloom on all the deciduos trees in the hills, making for a spectacular palette. Our destination for the day was any decently sized town past Idaho Falls, putting us in position to view the last bits of Yellowstone we were still interested in on the way up to Glacier. After a ways, the Hoback gave way to the Snake river, and finally to the valley plains around Idaho Falls. Just before driving into town, we spotted a rather unique antiques shop along the road. Upon close inspection the structure was revealed to be three independent buildings. Presumably, the owner had moved these three to one lot and merged them. I can’t imagine how else three such incongruous bits of construction would have come to cohabitate. I wish we could tell you all that we found lots of treasures in the store, but I can’t. Unfortunately we arrived at this roadside attraction on Sunday, so they were
closed.
Downtown Idaho Falls is quite worth a stop if you are in the area. There is a park near the titular falls of the city that features a 1930s fish hatchery, Japanese lanterns, and a recreation of the towns first toll bridge. In the shopping area are lots of old drugstores, antiques, small cafés, restaurants and even a few theaters and galleries. We were unable to explore any of these businesses more than superficially though, as it was Sunday, and they were all closed. We did a resupply walk over to Wally World, and on the walk back to the car we passed a couple eyeing us strangely. As we passed, the young lady remarked to her male “It figures, Wal-Mart.” I am not sure if this was astonishment at shopping occurring on a Sunday and offending her Mormon sensibilities, or if she was an anti-Wal-Mart person. Either way, it was a topic for discussion for Obfuscator and me for quite awhile.
Further up the Snake River sits the local Mormon temple, an imposing ziggurat (ZIGERNAUT!) in external design, surrounded by a quite well maintained garden. After rounding the building we moved to the city park across
Antiques shop
first and most interesting of the three from the temple and saw a few memorials devoted to early settlers, the Mormons that founded the City’s first hospital, and all the veterans and casualties of wars from Idaho Falls. Lastly there was a statue of a heroic looking mountain man, braving the elements with naught his buckskin and musket. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that Obfuscator and I didn’t get close enough to read his plaque, since we were trying to get a few more miles out before stopping for the evening and the statue was in the middle of a somewhat busy street. On the way out of town, we noticed that the Idaho Falls airport has some old war birds stored by the tarmac. We didn’t get to close to these either, but I suspect we have seen these aircraft before at an air show back home, so not to much of a loss to my way of thinking.
Just before entering Rexburg (our stop for the night) we encountered two note worthy things to look at. First, the ReXburg motorsports sales building (the extra uppercase X in their name is because they are REXTREME!) and also a private aircraft museum that has a
Antiques shop
Middle of the three. Why are they merged? MIG on display, among other combat aircraft. Of course, we couldn’t see any of these attractions, as it was Sunday. So we checked into our motel and asked the front desk what we should see in the area before we went on our merry way. We were advised that the sand dunes one town over were quite nice.
On to the slightly smaller town of St. Anthony. Entering town the first thing we noticed was the american legion M-60 tank decomisioned in the local park. God bless those guys for providing things for little boys to play on for so many years. We pulled into the park, as it appeared to be a nice spot. Our rapid assessment turned out to be quite right. The town has put together a solid park for the kids, with a beautiful rapids and small peninsula jutting out into the current, manned by a doughboy, a memorial to the first world war. We then continued on to the sand dunes, encountering a few abandoned buildings and one currently inhabited mansion on the way. When I say mansion, I don’t mean McMansion. I mean real, old style, massive home. The sand dunes themselves weren’t
Antiques shop
Last of the three. It's like a big borg shop. All buildings in the region will be assimilated! that great. Lots of four wheelers and a freakish RV park on the inside, and aside from that the dunes were mostly notable because of the anomaly of their location. Back to Rexburg and a chance to check out the town a bit more closely. The Mormons have built a huge temple on a hill to service the Brigam Young university campus in town, and aside from that there were a few other places that we thought would be good stops. Have I mentioned that there was no where to visit because it was a Sunday?
Leasons learned: Just because we have no sense of day or time doesn’t mean that everyone else has no sense of days. From now on, we should try doing our interesting cities or sites with hours of service on weekdays, or perhaps Saturdays. Sunday is just a bad day to hit worthwhile urban areas. In east Idaho, gas prices are directly proportional to how far from Idaho Falls you are. Gas is cheapest on the west side of highway 15.
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