The Indian Summer. and other Idaho, ID Things to Do Tips

Even if the weather is not the best, the aspen trees offer wonderful sceneries; the Snake River Valley widens after the village of Swan Valley and on the northern side, the forests cover the smooth slopes of the Snake River Range. Covering whole hills or isolated, these trees just brighten the landscapes.
With nice weather it would be fine to walk on some trail up to the hills and get bathed in the yellow light. I my case, that day, stop and have a look only.

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Directions: Road across Snake River Range, linking Wyoming to Idaho

Before arriving at Idaho falls, drive slowly downhill, the open eyes may glimpse some old ruined barn not far from the roadside; even old agricultural tools may be nearby. How old is this one? When was it abandoned for extensive agriculture? These old things have their charm, even if it is only a very common building, here, in the middle of nowhere. When I (I should I write “we” ?) travel, I do not just go from one place to another, the road, the path, the trail are as important as the destination. What I see or experience “en route” is preparing me to what I will see and experience when I arrive. Little things open my mind and make me dream.
The journey, not the arrival matters (T.S. Eliot). This quote “stolen” from Malena’s homepage (merci!), fitted with my mood when driving on the Idaho roads.

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Address: Road to Idaho Falls

The dust storm

Ah not exactly a thing to do! Just get in a different world, a bit scaring when driving. . . . dust storms are very common in that area of Idaho, and signs on the roadside inform the drivers.
Extensive agriculture favors soil erosion and the empty fields are just blown away when the soil is dry.
The dust is transported as big clouds near the soil and the storms move quite fast; it is wise to stop the car on the roadside and switch on the lights, close the windows and wait it is over; they can last for 10-15 mn, but I imagine they could be very longer. . . . . I experienced sand winds in North Africa, but it is different, there is always light, here it can get quite dark.

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Directions: Road 20, between Idaho Falls and Arco

The “Crater of the moon” was one of the places I wanted to visit on my Idaho trip, and, coming from North East, the landscape tell you, you are arriving on a very recent volcanic activity area. Recent for me is less than a few million years. . . here, in the Snake River plain, activity began one million years ago and the most spectacular features like the Craters of the moon are between 15000 and 2000 years old; about 40 km before arriving at the village of Arco, coming from Idaho falls (Road 20), you will see a few buttes, marking the landscape; these are huge cinder cones some of which are used for telecommunications, in a closed area belonging to the US Department of Energy; oops there is a place named Atomic City nearby, so I did not stay long. . . .
Sagebrush, light and Big Southern Butte in the background on the main picture
Cedar Butte and Big Southern Butte on second and third pictures.
The surface of lava flows is very rugged and almost only sage grows on this lava flow, foreground of picture4; lots of crevasses, fissures and holes, and a twist of an ankle can be got easily walking on that sort of surface.
On the last picture, lava flows the road has been cut through; a bit a desolated landscape; the darker the color, the younger the lava.
Craters of the Moon Monument is not far, lets go there now.

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Directions: Road 20 between Arco and Carey

The NASA had mostly “image”, military and technical objectives with the first flights to the moon, and only the last flight (when the “race” to the moon has been won!) had scientists in the crew:
Among them, Harrison Schmidt, one of the (to date) nine moon walkers was a geologist, a trained volcanologist and astrogeologist, made an “off the beaten path” walk there and collected some rocks, which, once in Terrestrial universities, brought fundamental contributions to episodes of Planet Earth’s early history, to proofs of it’s age, the age of the solar system, to models of planetary systems and galaxies formation and evolution. . . . . . not less!
Let’s keep modest and walk on the terrestrial rocks here, which are as spectacular (except for the “earthshine”, of course!), and can tell us a lot; and we can simply enjoy walking in these rugged landscapes, being somewhere else!

You can walk on stringed lava (Pahoehoe) (second picture), thinking of the 1100°C hot flowing liquid rock under your feet, whaleback structures on other flows (third picture), boulder and blocky surfaces (picture4). On some places, vegetation has difficulty to settle. Craters of Moon National Monument can be visited by car, and trails have been laid out for easy access for walkers and wheelchairs (Picture5).

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Directions: Road 20 between Arco and Twin Falls, north side of Snake River Plain.
There are camp grounds and van parking grounds
Entrance: I went in free, the gate was open; I do not know about fees.

Before visiting the Moon, you can park your vehicle near the visitors centre and have a visit there; rangers welcome you, give documentation, inform you about what to see and where it is. A mini-museum dedicated to volcanology and nature of the area can be visited free; interesting is that the rock samples displayed are not only from here but from other volcanic areas; the local scene is put in perspective with general volcanology; explanatory boards about how a volcano forms, where they are on the planet and why. . . etc. . . There are also examples of vegetal and animal life in the area, explanations about how life develops on places like here.
Small shop for postcards, books and “souvenirs”.
A last picture , where, even with super magnifiers you won’t see local life, but can see the huge lava flow (dark color) of “Mare Tranquilitatis ”; the craters are meteorite impact craters (Euuh, June 3rd 2007, Pau) . . . .

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Directions: Road 20 between Arco and Twin Falls, north side of Snake River Plain.
There are camp grounds and van parking grounds
Entrance: I went in free, the gate was open; I do not know about fees.
Website: http://www.nps.gov/crmo/

And now, with a map, you can drive and walk on the lava fields, see the rock formations, look at shapes, colors, and . . . try to think if the names given on the map fit with what you see!
Many names are linked to hell, (ah?), like Devils Orchards, inferno cone, other places have poetic names, like Dewdrop Cave, and other are just describing what you see, like Spatter Cones, Big Sink Overlook. . . . .
It is easy to reach all these points by car, and then walk on well maintained trails. If I can dare a recommendation, I would suggest to walk up the Inferno Cone, the second highest point of the area and have a 360° look over the volcanic fields.

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Directions: Road 20 between Arco and Twin Falls, north side of Snake River Plain.
There are camp grounds and van parking grounds
Entrance: I went in free, the gate was open; I do not know about fees.
Website: http://www.nps.gov/crmo/

In the park area there are signs directing the visitors to places of interest; fossils are usually found in sedimentary rocks, and it is very exceptional to find in volcanic rocks; these special fossils (in fact traces), are tree molds, in “living position” (vertical) but generally laying. I would not have found them easily and the signs are very useful. After a half an hour hike from a parking place, you walk on a lava flow where some of the molds are indicated, but there are more.
On the main picture is the trace of bark, turned to charcoal, before vanishing, giving that particular square pattern.
A tree fell on the lava. . . and that is what is left (second picture).
“Living” position” is not spectacular, a vertical hole is left (third picture)
The one on fourth picture came too late to be turned into a fossil. . . (fourth picture)
But you may ask: why are holes left, or traces that visible, if the 1100°C hot lava burns the trees? No physics course here. . . just temperature has not to be confused with heat: the lava flows here are quite thin and cool quickly on the soil (and around the trees), get lower than 238 °C and then even cool down the trees from previous temperature, before they completely burn. And below 238°C wood (cellulose) does not burn. . . . . remember Ray Bradbury’s novel: “Fahrenheit 451”, the temperature required to burn books (paper, cellulose). . . . . . . So the dead trees were there for some time, then they were rotten away, like “normal” trees, and left these spectacular traces.
On the last picture, a trace which will vanish soon as desert dust. . . .

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Directions: The map you get at the entrance shows where it is.
Website: http://www.nps.gov/crmo/

The sun came down when I was driving between the craters and Twin Falls. The Snake river Plain is quite a boring place and the sunset was welcome, there was some color, something to distract from the uniform landscape.
I share here a few pictures from the sunset (Pictures one to three)
Next morning, I left Twin Falls early and could enjoy the sunrise; always sun, clouds a little bit dust in the air, that makes colors.; last picture, a bit later, a view on Snake River which carved its way in the basalt flows.

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Directions: Road 23, Careu to Twin Falls

To many of you, this might sound very common, but me, I was discovering the deep (not so wild) West. Haha, real cowboys herding cattle, riding on horses! I had to stop and watch! On the second picture, these are not broncos, but they looked beautiful to me, in open range, on the roadside of my next destination. Is this not a nice view (Picture 3)? It is not always peaceful it seems, but here bullfighting involves only bulls, no matador (well, they will finish as steaks, one day or the other. . . ).And on the road to City of rocks, some small mountains displayed the wonderful colors of the Indian summer.

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Directions: Road 27 south of Burley