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...