Idaho

After a comfortable night (temps into the mid-40s) in Rock Springs at the KOA next to the huge gasoline holding tanks that served as our buffer from busy Interstate 80; we proceeded west toward Idaho on U.S. 30, the Lincoln Highway that was the first in the U.S. to connect the East and West Coasts (New York to San Francisco).

We stopped in at Fossil Butte National Monument, home to one of the world’s premier sites for fish fossils.

We soon re-joined the Oregon Trail (apparently the emigrants saw no reason to detour to Rock Springs) and, with the help of our guide book, continued to learn about the Trail.

The photo is of Big Hill, which many emigrants described as the steepest they had so far encountered. The ruts from where they locked the wheels on the wagons and slid down the hill are still visible in some places. Using binoculars, we think we saw them.

U.S. 30 closely follows the Trail as it winds through the mountains of southeastern Idaho toward the Snake River Valley. Just like the emigrants we will follow this valley toward Boise and, soon after that, Oregon!

Although the valley is relatively flat and there is plenty of water in the river this was a difficult segment for the emigrants because the valley is a desert and they typically reached this area in mid-summer and the water is often inaccessible because of the high, steep cliffs. 

Furthermore, when the water was accessible that often meant there would be a difficult crossing. We are puzzled why they didn’t use Interstate 84 to cross the desert like we plan to do?

By the time we reached the delightfully-named Massacre Rocks State Park in mid-afternoon the temperature was in the mid-90s, the hottest we’ve experienced since the first days of the trip.

The park gets its name from an incident in which Shoshone Indians and/or white bandits dressed as Indians attacked and killed 10 emigrants. These attacks were not that common but they got a lot of attention when they did occur. The biggest killer of emigrants was, by far, was cholera.

Even though the park is hard by I-86 it is also bordered by the beautiful Snake River and we snagged a nice camping spot on a high bluff with a great view of the river (and the interstate and the windmill farm beyond). 

We had enough time to hike through the tumbleweeds to a spot that (supposedly) still has traces of the ruts from the emigrant wagons.

The sunset, the stars at night, the sunrise this morning were all beautiful and the temperature dropped quickly in the dry air for a very pleasant evening. Without a doubt this is our best camping stop so far on the Oregon Trail.