Three Island Crossing State Park

 We met up with my parents for our last camping trip, just as summer was officially ending.  We kept it local, and we met up at Three Island Crossing State Park, in Southern Idaho.  It was mostly a time of relaxing and enjoying family time.  But we did get a chance to see some of the fascinating history of the area.

For those who aren't aware, Three Island Crossing is exactly what it sounds like.  There are three islands, like stepping stones, across the Snake River and it was an important site on the Oregon Trail.  It was at this point that the Oregon Trail split.  A successful river crossing meant a somewhat easier trip across the rest of Idaho.  There was more water, vegetation for livestock, and the chance to stop by Fort Boise.  You just had to successfully ford the river.  If a group didn't want to risk the crossing, the Southern alternative became their route.  This was not the favored option as there was less water and it was known to be the tougher of the two routes.

There is a really good overlook to the South of the campground you can drive to, and get a great birds eye view of the land.  The wagons would start out with the first ford and cross the length of the first island.  You can still see and visualize impressions running across the center of the first island, left by the multitudes of wagons.

The wagons would bypass the third island, cutting directly across the remainder of the Snake River Channel.  Upon reaching the bank their fanned out in a wide arc heading to the North-west.  While this area is farmland now, you can still see evidence of the trail from this vantage point up above.  The immense number of wagons compressed the ground so much and left depressions known as swales.  The darker terrain are these swales.  It does require some imagination and looking for the little details, but as Amber and I have traveled to a lot of these historical sites it does get a bit easier.

As we were leaving the overlook we did stop for a few minutes where the road intersects the Oregon Trail.  Just some simple white markers and swales denote its presence.  We walked along the wagon depressions for a bit, just imagining the hundreds of thousands of people who walked and struggled along this very path for months on end.  Here we are able to cover that same distance in mere hours.  It's very fascinating and humbling to think about.

Return Trip Home from Dinosaur

 When we left Vernal, UT, it was only a 1 hour drive to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  I had originally planned on us camping here, but scrapped that so we could stay in Vernal longer.  So instead we would only spend a few hours here.

Our first stop was the dam.  It was completed in late 1962 as part of the Colorado River Storage Project.  The dam provides irrigation, recreation, and electricity production.  They have a small visitor center at the dam and some walk ways visitors can take to get some nice views.

Flaming Gorge got its name in 1869 during Major John Wesley Powell's first expedition.  Three days after leaving Green River, WY, they came into the Uinta Mountains and they described the sun radiating off the colorful canyon walls as flames.  Thus, they named it Flaming Gorge.  As we didn't have much time to explore we only made one more stop in the area.  We continued on to the Red Canyon Overlook & Visitor Center.  The kids had a blast playing with toys, coloring, and we took a short walk in the rain to some overlooks.  The view is amazing.

We continued on as our afternoon plans were to explore Fort Bridger, in Wyoming.  We wanted to take our son to his name sake.

As the name implies, Fort Bridger came into existence because of Jim Bridger, the infamous mountain man and Western explorer.  It all began as a small log trading post that he constructed in 1843 to service emigrant traffic heading West.  Today Fort Bridger State Park has a section of their grounds dedicated to this first trading post with a replica.

The entire fort itself is a treasure trove of history, and as one can imagine with little kids running around we didn't get to experience everything the place had to offer.  But we did our best.  Following the arrival of Mormon settlers in the region, tensions began to mount between Jim Bridger and the locals.  There was a period of a Mormon militia taking control of the fort and Jim fled.  He returned years later and the Mormons had made big improvements to the fort.  Years went on and Jim Bridger finally agreed to sell out to the Mormons.  However that wasn't the end of the conflict.  In 1857 federal troops arrived on order from the U.S. President to enforce federal law upon the Mormons.  More conflict ensued.  The Mormons burned the original fort to prevent its capture.  The U.S. military later rebuilt it and established a presence in the area.  Throughout the Civil War and rest of the 1800s the military occupied the fort until 1890 after the conclusion of the Indian Wars.  From that point different buildings were scrapped and sold off.  Today the Park consists of some original buildings restored and various reconstructions.  There are ongoing archeological projects to excavate some of the original foundations laid by the earliest Mormons as well.

We wandered around a bit more, exploring some of the old barracks, stables, and various old equipment they had.

We ended our day staying the night in a small tiny home we rented for a night near the town of Fort Bridger.  It was a nice quiet place to stay the night.  In the morning we embarked on our last full day on the road, and it would be busy.  The main attraction was Fossil Butte National Monument.  It's a very remote NPS site in the middle of nowhere in South-western Wyoming.

In 1856 Dr. John Evans collected what were probably some of the first fossils found in the region.  He started a trend of other scientists coming out to study the buried creatures, and as the railroads expanded across the West this improved access to the land.  Fossils have been found here and sent all over the country to be only display.  No dinosaur fossils have been found here, however.  It is primarily smaller reptiles and mostly fresh water marine life.

(Fossil Butte)

I think most Evolutionists and Bible believing Christians can agree that the area surrounding Fossil Butte was most definitely a lake of some kind in the past.  Where we would disagree, obviously, is on the timing of sequences.  The mainstream narrative is that the lake, named Fossil Lake, drained and refilled multiple times.  Slowly there were local floods and events that buried some creatures.  Over millions of years this was repeated time and time again.  That is a bunch of bunk. It makes sense the area was a lake in early Biblical times.  When Noah's Flood began the larger animals were trying to escape to higher ground and that is probably why none of their fossils are found here.  Rapid burial occurred and probably millions of these creatures were preserved as a result.  Fossil Lake was teeming with so much life and that is evidenced by the trove of fossils they have on display.  As we wandered through the Visitor Center you can even see examples of fossils and the Park Service is inadvertently hinting at a global catastrophe and rapid burial for some of the examples, which I will point out what I found.

First some of the best fish specimins:

This one directly above, I really like.  How many times are there hundreds of dead fish in just a few square feet and they have been preserved in stone?  Was it just a coincidence that these creatures all died at the exact same time and became fossils?  Next, they had some examples of fish overlapping, including one fish trying to eat another fish.  If a fish slowly dies of natural causes, do you think its final act in life is going to be trying to eat a meal?  Of course not.  This fish was going about its normal business when Noah's Flood buried in the act of eating.

(Overlapping fish fossils)

In the fossil display the Park Service had a section set up discussing evidence of a catastrophe, and I thought it was interesting to see them right over the target but miss it completely as the NPS denies the existence of God.

Finally, just some photos of the other interesting fossils that are on display.

                                                                    (Alligator)

The last thing we did before leaving was take the short scenic drive.  We stopped and had a picnic area completely to ourselves, and then ended up on a ridge enjoying the views and the solitude of this part of Wyoming.

Overall it was a fantastic experience visiting this place.  I get very excited about geology and fossils, and this place has the biggest display of fossils I've seen so far in my life.  Even the bathrooms had display cases of petrified poop contained in them.  I would definitely return someday if we are passing through as there are a couple hiking trails in the Park (including one to the old fossil quarry).  Plus, outside the Park land you can pay a fee with some private outfitters and go fossil digging with them.

We continued on our way home, stopping in Montpelier, ID to do an Oregon Trail Living History experience.  No pictures were allowed, but it was a neat stop.  You step back in time with some dressed up actors and they walk you through preparations and you ride a computer controlled covered wagon and get to feel every rock and bump for a few minutes.  We ended the night camping in Lava Hot Springs, ID.  In the morning we took the kids to the Pocatello zoo before making the final push home.  Overall it was a very fun trip and it was neat to see our kids do and enjoy more during our time on the road.  Until our next adventure...

Dinosaur National Monument

I finally hit my 1 year mark with my new job in Southern Idaho, so that meant I got access to some PTO.  We decided to build a family vacation around visiting Dinosaur National Monument, and seeing some other sites along the way.

We were able to get out of town Friday evening and make it to our place for the night in Ogden, UT.  We had wanted to take the kids to a the Children's Treehouse Museum Saturday morning (located in Ogden).  It's a pretty neat place for the kids with multiple levels of toy set ups, books, and all sorts of ways for kids to use their imagination.  The price was pretty good too.  We spent about 3 hours there before we continued on our way across Utah.

We finally arrived in Dinosaur National Monument early evening and we set up our camp in the Green River Campground.  It would be our home for the next three nights.  The Green River Campground lies just a few miles past the Dinosaur Fossil Quarry, and as the name suggests, is along the Green River as it makes its way out of the canyon area.  It flows South from this point towards Canyonlands National Park.

In the morning, we set out for the nearby Fossil Quarry Visitor Center to start our first day exploring the park.

They present interesting geological (of course from an evolutionary perspective) & historical information about the area.  In 1909 a paleontologist named Earl Douglass came to the region to try and locate bones for the Carnegie Museum back East.  After spending some time digging, what became known as the Carnegie Quarry was opened up (near present day Jensen, UT).  As time went on, the quarry produced over 350 tons of fossils and it became one of the most important paleontological finds of the 20ths Century.  It was so important that in 1915 President Wilson established 80 acres of land at the Carnegie Quarry as Dinosaur National Monument.  In 1938 the Monument was expanded again by President Roosevelt in order to protect the Canyonlands of the Green & Yampa Rivers (but more on that area later).

As we rode the shuttle bus from the visitor center up to the quarry building, you pass through numerous rock layers on the steep drive up.  They narrate your ride up with the usual talking points of "millions of years".  But when you reach the main quarry which has been preserved, you are in what is known as the Morrison Formation.  This strata is made up mostly of mudstone, sandstone, and other lesser materials.  It stretches a huge swath of North America and has yielded the most and best dinosaur fossils,  There are small areas accessible in Montana, Idaho, and the Dakotas, but the American Southwest (due to the excessive erosion and canyonlands) provides the easiest access.

When you walk into the Quarry Exhibit Hall, you are literally looking at a giant wall of dinosaur bones.  There are numerous species, including some of the well known ones such as Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Apatosaurus.  When the National Monument was established fossils were left in the rock wall as they lay.  It is incredible to see so many species in a jumbled mess all buried in the same place.  It's almost like there was a cataclysmic disaster that buried all these creatures in a mass graveyard...  But the National Park Service can't admit that Noah's Flood is a real historical event responsible for this.  They insist that over eons and eons of time dinosaurs died and were slowly buried and then slowly turned into rock.  When you view the wall of incredibly preserved bones you have to be a fool to not see a worldwide catastrophe.

(A rarity, a fully intact Camarasaurus skull.  In fact, they believe most of the animal's skeleton is in the wall)

Over the course of our time in Dinosaur, we ended up going into the Quarry three different times.  Addie certainly loved riding the shuttle bus, and it remains her most talked about item of excitement from the trip.

(Allosaurus replica)

Following our first visit to the Fossil Quarry, we went out to the Josie Morris homestead site, located at the end of the Cub Creek Road.  Josie Morris was a divorced woman who build a life for herself in the wilderness of Dinosaur country.  She lived in her cabin for 50 years without running water or electricity.  She raised crops and livestock and even used one of the canyons (called Box Canyon) near her homestead as a natural animal corral.  We did this very easy hike with the kids.  Even on a hot summer day it still affords some shade, and the views are pretty.

Also of note along the Cub Creek Road are some pretty impressive petroglyphs left by the Fremont group of people.

That evening we enjoyed relaxing in our campsite as a family, and walking along the Green River.  We even tried going to a ranger talk on animal's night vision, but of course with little toddlers we only lasted 15 minutes.  The views of the area are amazing.  It's about at this point when the Green River leaves the canyons and flows across the Uinta Basin on its way South.  You are treated to stunning views both in the campsite, and up on the bluff above.

The next morning we would be going over to the Colorado side of the Monument and doing some exploration of the even lesser visited canyon lands.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the dinosaurs, but I was in particular excited about hiking the Harper's Point Trail.

The Green River's headwaters are in the Wind River Mountains of central Wyoming.  Once the river leaves the mountains it flows South across what settlers called the lush Green River Valley.  It does this relatively unimpeded until it reaches the Uinta Mountains.  The Uinta Mountains are a geographical oddity in that they run East-West, while most other mountain ranges in North America are North-South.  The peaks highest points range between 11,000-13,000 feet.  The mountains are primarily located along the Northeast corner of Utah but do slightly spill over into Wyoming and Colorado.

It's at this point that the Green River flows directly into the Uinta Mountains (another oddity).  The general agreement is this begins around Flaming Gorge (more on that later) and winds its way through the remote backcountry of Dinosaur until it exits the mountains near the Dinosaur Quarry.  If you study a map of the National Monument, you will see just how much backcountry there is to explore.  Huge swaths of untouched canyon lands that remain the same as when the first white American explorers dared to travel the river.

In 1869 one of the last unexplored places in North America was the Colorado River system.  Major John Wesley Powell, a one armed Civil War Veteran, led his first expedition beginning in Green River, WY.  Upon reaching what would later become Dinosaur, they entered a huge narrow canyon with imposing and challenging rapids.  He named this section "Gates of Lodore" and today it denotes the Green River's entrance into the Northern tip of the National Monument.

Unfortunately we didn't have the time or money to explore a lot of Dinosaur's backcountry; maybe on a return trip someday.  We were, however, going to drive the Harper's Corner scenic drive.  You start in the small town of Dinosaur, Colorado and wind your way up onto the Yampa Plateau.  After many miles of driving you begin to see glimpses of the canyon lands stretched out before you.  We only stopped at the end of the scenic drive: the trail head for the Harper's Point Trail.

The Harper's Point Trail is about 2 miles round trip.  You pretty much are confined to a narrow ridge and you hike out to the most extreme point.  At the end you have about 300 degree views all around you.  To the West you watch the Green River disappear into Whirlpool Canyon (another name given by Powell's expedition).  To the East stretches more immense canyon and a view of Steamboat Rock.  You can see the Yampa River and its confluence with the Green River is just obscured behind Steamboat Rock.

                                                                (Looking East)

(Looking West)

As I have never been to the Grand Canyon, or Black Canyon of the Gunnison yet, this was by far the grandest canyon view I have ever beheld.  And what made it better, was our family had this view entirely to ourselves.  There are nobody else on the hike when we did it.  That beats the crowded South Rim of the Grand Canyon any day, as far as I'm concerned.

After making it back to the Utah side of the National Monument, we finished out our day with another shuttle ride and quick tour of the Quarry Exhibit Hall, before enjoying time together for our last night of camping by the Green River.

The next morning we packed up camp and took the shuttle bus up to the Quarry one more time.  It was "cooler" a bit earlier in the day and we had wanted to hike the Fossil Discovery Trail downhill from the Quarry to the main Visitor Center. We strapped the kids into our backpacks and set off.  It was pretty views and there were three main areas to view fossils still embedded in the rocks.  There was an area of small corals and shells, a band with dinosaur bones, and another band (which we didn't take the spur trail to see because the kids were losing patience being hot and in the carriers) of fish scales.

After finishing our hike we left Dinosaur National Monument.  We headed into nearby Vernal (the Utah gateway community to the Park) and killed some time with the kids until we could check into our Airbnb.  We were hosted by a nice couple with a small farm outside of town.  We had our own private house with fresh eggs and honey from the couple's chickens and beehives.  They also provided us with plenty of firewood.  The next couple days consisted of enjoying the comforts of a soft bed, exploring the Utah Field House of Natural History, playing with the kids at the park, and sampling some local food.  By Thursday morning we were packed up and ready to take our time heading home to see some new stops along the way.