After leaving Washington, we made a one night stop in Oregon, at Hilgard Junction SP, a small CG next to I-84 and the Grande Ronde River, near La Grange, OR. The next morning we got back on I-84 and continued southeast, leaving the forests of Oregon, crossing the Snake River into Idaho high plateau farmlands. I-84 passes through the capital of Idaho, Boise, and on to Twin Falls. Rock Creek CG, a county owned CG is centrally located so we could visit the four National Park sites in southwest Idaho. Other interests in Twin Falls are the Snake River Gorge and the two falls on the Snake River. Twin Falls is unique in that they allow BASE (from a fixed object) parachute jumping from the Perrine Bridge. The bridge is nearly 500 above the Snake River.

Our first trip was to Hagerman Fossil Beds NM. The trails were closed so we could not visit the the area(s) that have the beds exposed. The park headquarters is a small building in the town of Hagerman. This location is also the headquarters of Minidoka MHS, a site where 13,000+ Japanese American citizens and legal resident aliens of Japanese ancestry, were incarcerated at the beginning of World War II . We did not visit the site.

From Hagerman we drove to the Craters of the Moon NM & Pres. As we approached the NM, it appeared very stark, nothing but volcanic ash, old lava flows and cinder cones. But a short video in the visitors center and hiking along the trails revealed a rugged landscape that provides a habitat for a surprising diversity of plants and animals. An example is a subspecies of the Yellow Pine Chipmunk found nowhere else in the world. Sunset found us back at the CG with fresh vegetables, hot dogs grilled on the campfire and Spanish red wine.

The next morning we headed for The City of Rocks (COR) NR, about 40 miles south of Burley. The California (Emigrant) Trail passed through the COR on its way to Nevada and California. The “rocks” are generally large granite domes and spires. One of the rocks along the California Trail is aptly named Register Rock. Many of the emigrants passing this large rock scratched their names (or “registered”) into the side of the rock. The COR is also a destination for sport rock climbing.

The last full day in Utah was spent doing laundry, watching the jumpers leap off the Perrine Bridge, visiting Shoshone and Twin Falls and going to the library to catch up on our email.