Exploring the Snake River

 It's finally starting to feel a little like spring in Southern Idaho, so we did a bit of exploring during a free weekend.  We had friends from Boise come over and visit us and we all went to see Shoshone Falls.  It's not at its peak flow yet, but it is still impressive at 212 feet tall.  It's called the "Niagara of the West".

Our friends headed back to Boise, and we decided to take a drive to give the kids a chance to sleep in the car.  I decided we should go try and find a place known as Caldron Linn.

In 1811, the race was on for a man named John Jacob Astor to try and beat the British to the Pacific Northwest and tap its vast fur resources.  He had financed an expedition to establish what is today the town of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River.  One group sailed around Cape Horn, and another group cut across the North American Continent.  This Overland Party, as they became known as, took their sweet time getting across the Great Plains.  Their original plan was to follow the footsteps of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, but as fall progressed they decided to try their luck on a different path.  They heard stories from Indians about a "Mad River" (Today known as the Snake River).  When they arrived near the headwaters the expedition chose to try and travel the Snake via canoes.  They had mild success for a while, although it was rough going.  The Snake certainly lived up to its name of "Mad" as they had numerous close calls.

When they arrived at this particular location, the rough water conditions caused a canoe to be wrecked, supplies lost, and one man drowned.  From this point on they abandoned their canoes and hiked across Southern Idaho on foot.  The water swirls around and during periods of higher water it creates a "vortex".  Linn is a Scottish word for vortex (Some of the expedition members were Scottish) and thus the name Caldron Linn stuck.

                                                    (Looking down stream from Caldron Linn)

                                                    (Series of waterfalls named Caldron Linn)

Today this is one of the few areas of the Snake River that still appears intact as it hasn't been affected by dam construction.  You can access this area via a rough and steep dirt road that drops into the Snake River Canyon.  After parking your car and hiking over rocky terrain one finally finds themselves peering over the edge of this smaller gorge and into the Caldron below.

It's pretty fascinating to know that this event, that was part of the expedition to found Astoria, is directly responsible for the settlement of the Pacific Northwest and gave us the life we know today.  There are multiple great books to read detailing the events.  However, this decision to not follow in Lewis & Clark's footsteps, and then later on the return of some expedition members across Southern Wyoming was essentially the American's discovery of the route that would become the Oregon Trail & South Pass.

Oregon Coast

Our family of 4 enjoyed a very nice getaway this September to the Oregon Coast.  It was preceded by changing jobs, moving from Montana to Idaho, starting a new job, shingles, chicken pox, and all the fun that goes along with that.  Needless to say, we were all ready for a nice break.  Rather than expound on the entire trip, I will just write up some of the highlights.  We spent a lot of our time visiting friends in Tri-cities, Washington, and spending quality family time with the in-laws on the Oregon Coast.  We did short trips from our rental in Rockaway Beach (Some of them were things I've already written about in older posts).

One of the afternoons I took my father-in-law to the Tillamook Air Museum.  I had visited once in 2012, but I didn't remember much. They have lost a few exhibits since then, but it is still worth visiting if you're in the area.

During WWII, the present structure the Air Museum now occupies (Known as Hanger B), and a second hanger (Hanger A, which burned down in 1992) were constructed to form Tillamook Naval Air Station.  These hangers were, and Hanger B still is, the largest freestanding wooden structure in the world.  Each hanger could house 4 K-class blimps which were 252 feet long apiece.  The blimps primary purpose was to provide anti-submarine patrol and convoy escorts.  They ranged from the San Juan Islands to the North, down South to California.

After the Navy decommissioned the bases following Japan's surrender, lumber companies occupied the hangers primarily for a long period of time.  In the late 90's the remaining Hanger B was converted into an air museum.

They also had a nice selection of aircraft engines on display, ranging from the first single cylinder piston engines, on up to modern turbo-jet engines.  Me, being a fan of the P-38 and the heavy 4 engine bombers of WWII, I enjoyed the cut-away display models they had for the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 and the Allison V-1710.

Another notable aspect to this trip that I will share about, was finally getting to share our love of lighthouses with one of our children.  Bridger is only 6 months old, so obviously he didn't care about what was going on.  We were able to get Addie excited, on the other hand, about visiting lighthouses.  We got both kids their own United States Lighthouse Society Passport book so they could start logging their visits just like Mom & Dad.  For those who aren't familiar with this, it's similar to the National Parks Passport, except in this case you typically make a small donation to support preservation efforts and in turn you can get your passport stamped when you visit lighthouses.  Some remote lighthouses, however, you cannot always visit and their are other provisions for obtaining the stamps (like for Tillamook Rock Lighthouse).

The first lighthouse we visited on our trip was the Cape Meares Lighthouse, about 20 minutes from Tillamook.  This was the first lighthouse Amber and I got a passport stamp for on our honeymoon in 2017.  The lighthouse was constructed in 1890, and its tower is only a mere 40 feet high.  Certainly not tall for Oregon Coast standards, but it sits elevated on a bluff and the First Order Fresnel lens has a focal plane over the ocean of 223 feet.

Addie was very excited to see the lighthouse and she had a huge grin plastered on her face as she clutched her passport, eager to get it stamped.

During the trip, we had planned a full day to go North and visit the Astoria area.  I love that part of the coast, and I have written about the history of the area before so I won't rehash that.  The main things on our list were taking the kids to Lewis & Clark National Historical Park (Which Addie absolutely loved running around and exploring the replica of Fort Clatsop)...

... also taking the kids to Cape Disappointment & North Head lighthouse (which Addie was thrilled to see those lighthouses as well)...

... But our main reason was to visit the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria.  The museum features fabulous displays and exhibits about the local history, WWII history, the operations of the US Coast Guard, and lots of information about the shipwrecks in the area.  The Columbia River Bar is nicknamed the "Graveyard of the Pacific" due to the dangerous waters around the mouth of the river.  The museum also features the Lightship Columbia, which was essentially a lighthouse on a ship that spent time anchored at the mouth from 1950 until 1979.  It was the fifth and final lightship to be stationed there.  It was also the final lighthouse stamp Amber and I needed for the Oregon lighthouses in our Passport.  However, it was just our bad luck that it wasn't open for tours while we were there because of needed repairs.

(Addie & Bridger are off to a great start on their Lighthouse Passport)

Again, I'm not writing about how we spent a lot of our time on our trip, but I will end with this.  Amber and I have certainly had to adjust how we sightsee and go on road trips now that we have two kids.  We certainly learned how little attention span they have and we were forced to race through the Maritime Museum and not view it at our own pace.  But it is absolutely wonderful to be parents and pass on our love of history and scenery to our kids, and hopefully as they grow up they will begin to appreciate it.  And there is something incredibly satisfying about watching your toddler be enthralled with playing on the beach for the first time in her life while you show her how to built sand castles...

Utah Road Trip Part 4

 First thing in the morning Emily and I made breakfast: and then we zipped off to Priority #1 for the day.  Go to the Gifford house first thing that morning when they opened, to load up on pie.  At this time of day they were fully stocked so Emily and I both got strawberry-rhubarb pie and I grabbed a cinnamon roll to split with Amber.

Then it was time for the second priority: Grand Wash Trail.  It is pretty similar to the Capitol Gorge Trail, except it has some sections of canyon that are narrower.

After we finished up our hike we headed back to camp to have some lunch.  Then while Amber & Addie rested, Emily and I embarked on a more difficult hike that we had been wanting to do.  We hiked the Cohab Canyon Trail, and went to both overlooks.  Cohab Canyon had a reputation for being a hiding place for the polygamists when federal agents came to the area to enforce marriage laws.  Cohab is a "Hanging Canyon", or a canyon above another canyon.  It's a steep climb to get to the mouth, but definitely worth it.

You eventually hike out of Cohab Canyon and then there are a couple spur trails to take you to different overlooks of the Fremont River/Fruita area.  The views were incredible and even made me dizzy as I peered over the edge of the sandstone cliffs.

Emily and I hiked back down to our camp and visited with Matt, Amy, and their kids as they had stopped by to say hi on their road trip.  After they took off we loaded up in the car to check out a couple more sites before we prepared to end our time at the park.  We checked out the historic Fruita school that the Park Service has preserved, as well as some petroglyphs from the Fremont people, before white settlers arrived in the area.

Our final stop was an area called The Goosenecks.  It's jaw dropping to see and the pictures don't do it justice.  Sulphur Creek is far below and the canyon seems to come out of nowhere.

When we had finished up exploring the area a bit more it was time to make dinner and then settle in for the evening.  It had been a full day of adventures and it was going to be sad to begin the trip home in the morning.  Capitol Reef gave us one more surprise, however.  Beginning in early evening we began getting some thunderstorms in the area.  The weather was very moody for a while, but at one point the sun poked out from behind the clouds and illuminated the red rocks and one of the barns.  I ran over and took what is probably one of my favorite pictures of the trip.

In the morning we were packed up and on the road before 8am.  It was sad to leave Capitol Reef- It moved into my favorite National Park that I have visited so far, barely edging out Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota.  The next couple days would be mostly driving, but we had one more stop we wanted to squeeze in on our way back home.

When we finally arrived in North Utah in mid-afternoon, we only had a couple hours to explore this park.  That meant no auto tour or hiking for us on this visit, so we focused mostly on the Visitor Center and seeing one of the steam engine demonstrations.

Golden Spike National Historical Park commemorates the meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads completing the nation's first transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.  I won't drone on about the history: You can read an excellent book by Stephen Ambrose called "Nothing Like It In The World" that gives a great in depth analysis of the railroad from pre-planning to completion.  But it is worth noting that in this desolate area of Northern Utah both railroads were continuing to build grade and had even passed each other because no official meeting point had been set.  But Congress finally determined the meeting point to be Promontory Summit.  Thus the ceremonial driving of the golden spike was planned, and the Central Pacific's locomotive named "Jupiter" and the Union Pacific's "No. 119" met in the middle.

The Park Service operates replicas of both locomotives and during the summer they do demonstrations for the public.  We were able to watch the No. 119 do a demonstration run late in the afternoon.

I would have loved to have spent more time exploring the area, but we just didn't have the time as we still needed to get checked into our lodging in Logan for the night and buy groceries.  But Golden Spike does also offer hiking and self guided interpretive auto tours along the original railroad grades.  It was a great end to a very fun and memorable trip exploring parts of Utah for the first time.  It will be exciting to come back someday and explore more of Utah, but also visit Capitol Reef again.

And.... as a bonus.... here is a photo of the famous Preston High School, in Preston, ID.  Amber and I realized the next morning that it wouldn't take any more time to leave Logan, UT, and head back a different way through Preston, ID.  Every good Idahoan knows that Preston is the location for the unofficial Idaho State movie, Napoleon Dynamite.  We had to swing by the school and see those famous steps where Napoleon, Pedro, and Deb all hung out... 😁

Utah Road Trip Part 3

 

Driving into Capitol Reef National Park was an incredible experience.  The towering red rock cliffs tower above you, and transport you into a new world.  We admired the scenery as we drove into the Park and got set up at our campsite we had for two nights in the Fruita Campground.

Capitol Reef is a place full of history, interesting geology, and stunning surprises around every rock.  The area is dominated by the 100 mile long geological feature called the Waterpocket Fold.  This incredible formation is a stretch of rock layers in the Earth's crust that was uplifted, folded, and then subjected to massive water erosion that scoured the terrain.  Evolutionary geologists (and the US Park Service) will try to tell you it took millions upon millions of years for the sediment layers to be deposited.  The Park Service even tries to tell visitors that the rock layers folded but were not broken.  When was the last time you saw a sedimentary rock bend and not be broken?  How about 100 miles of hundreds of rock layers?  It certainly takes more faith to believe that wild story than that of Genesis Flood account.  Massive sediment deposition is all across the American Southwest.  The mountains being raised out of the flood waters caused the still soft layers to bend and massive amounts of water sheeting off the continent scoured the landscape clean.

Like a lot of places in Utah, Capitol Reef was first settled by Mormon pioneers, in the 1880s.  The Fruita District, as it is called now, was the main area of settlement.  The settlers planted orchards, gardens, raised livestock, and carved a simple yet satisfying existence out of the desert oasis along the Fremont River.

We set up our camp in Fruita and then went to go check out one of the apple orchards first.  We were worried most of the apples would be picked already, but that worry was misplaced.  There were plenty to go around.  

While Emily, Amber, and I filled bags Addie had fun scrounging apples from the ground.  

After finishing up loading up on apples we still had some time before evening, so we decided to drive the scenic road through the Northern part of the park.

When we got to the end of the pavement we decided to drive down the Capitol Gorge Road and see if we could find parking.  After the seemingly long drive and the beautiful scenery we reached the trailhead and did get lucky with a parking spot.

Capitol Gorge used to be the only easily traveled path through the Waterpocket Fold, until the 1860s when UT route 24 was constructed.  Mormon pioneers used this route heavily to travel through the area, and plenty of them left lots of evidence on the canyon walls.  You can also still see metal poles hammered into the canyon walls that were used to hold telephone wires in the early 20th century.

By the time we hiked back out of Capitol Gorge, we were hungry and tired.  We headed back to camp and made a taco dinner.  But the real treat was our pie from the Gifford House.  We all ended up getting the last mixed berry pies that they were selling.  We enjoyed the treat and then settled in for the evening to prepare for the next day which would be our full day at Capitol Reef.

(Post Pie Selfie)

Utah Road Trip Part 2

 After packing up camp in the cold, we set out for a leisurely day of driving part of Utah Scenic Route 12.  We only had about 60 miles to go for the day.  After passing through Tropic and leaving Bryce Canyon behind, you quickly begin to descend and you are soon surrounded by "lower" rock layers.  I found a good turnout to get photos to help visualize how the Grand Staircase is situated, and slopes downward as you get closer to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  The red layers you see in the upper right of this photo is the same layers that Bryce Canyon sits in.

This particular area with the grey mudstone/clay has become famous for holding lots and lots of fossils.  Sea creatures and dinosaurs have all been found in massive burial sites in these very cliffs.  More than likely this area was a dumping ground during the flood for the massive amounts of sediment laden waters carrying the dead/dying animals.  When the land was raised upward out of the water, the rush of liquid flowing off the continents exposed and scoured out this area of the country.

We made it to Escalante and had a few hours to kill before we could check into our cabin, so we decided to check out two areas.  The first was the Hole-In-The-Rock Escalante Heritage Center right outside town.  This place tells the fascinating history of some of Utah's early Mormon pioneers.  The remote, rugged, and extremely hazardous terrain presented many challenges back in the day.  A group of 250 men, women, and children left the settlement of Escalante with the goal of blazing a trail to the far Southeast corner of Utah, near the San Juan River.  They blazed a wagon trail through the area along which the now named "Hole in the Rock Road" mostly follows.  The "Hole" part comes in when the group reached the Colorado River 1,800 feet below them.  Scouting revealed only one natural break in the canyon anywhere in the area.  The catch was it wasn't quite large enough for the wagons to pass through.  It took the settlers 6 long weeks of back-breaking work to blast and chisel the gap wide enough for them to pass through.  When it was all said and done, they basically slid their wagons down in controlled falls using ropes and friction to navigate the gap.

After our visit to the Heritage Center we went back to the West side of Escalante and visited Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.

Looking back now, I can't say I was particularly impressed with this park.  Despite their public hours saying they were open, there were no staff around to open the visitor center or provide information and guides on the hiking opportunities.  No reasons were made available on why this happened.  We ended up hiking the petrified forest loop which is pretty steep to get up onto a plateau.  You would think with a name like "Petrified Forest" there would be lots of trees, but that wasn't the case.  In fact, until the very end of the loop trail you hardly see any.  Certainly some of the specimens are impressive, but I probably wouldn't do the hike again.  I would go visit the National Park site in Arizona (which I haven't been to yet).

By this point we were hot, tired, and ready for showers and clean clothes.  We got checked into our small cabin in Escalante and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening getting clean, doing laundry, and gorging ourselves on hamburgers & milkshakes at the local Nemo's Drive Thru.

In the morning we whipped up a filling pancake breakfast and then headed out to finish our drive on HWY 12.  The route took us through more of the Northern tip of Grand Staircase-Escalante N.M, ultimately sending us up North to Capitol Reef.

Words really can't describe how beautiful and rugged the scenery became once we left Escalante.  It's almost like being on another planet and it's crazy to me how a worldwide flood meant to judge sin upon the world can still bring beauty to our surroundings.  It is literally nothing but rock and they built a highway through this area.

After a ways you drop down into the Escalante River & Calf Creek Canyon area.  I didn't get any photos from inside the canyons as you drive along, but take my word that it is very scenic and there are a multitude of hiking opportunities in this area.  We didn't do any because they are a bit longer distance and we had decided we wanted to spend most of our time in Capitol Reef.

After leaving the Calf Creek area you eventually climb upward and traverse what is known as "The Hogsback".  You drive on a small sliver of narrow ground atop a mesa, with steep drops on either side of the road.  If you don't like heights this would terrify you, but I found this part of the drive very pleasant and beautiful.  Here is a link if anyone is interested in this section of HWY 12  https://scenicusa.net/021110.html

The final part of the drive is after you leave Boulder, UT.  You gain some serious altitude and there are opportunities to see across Utah and even at times you get distant glimpses of the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef (More on that later).

Then on the descent into Torrey (The gateway town to Capitol Reef) you suddenly begin seeing the stunning red rock cliffs jutting out of the landscape.  The contrast to the pine forest you leave behind is simply stunning.  As we got closer and closer they seemed to get taller as they drew us into what would become my favorite part of the entire trip: Capitol Reef County.