July 11, 2010
After a freezing night sleep at our site in Yellowstone, we packed up and headed south out of the park into Teton National Forest, which is just as stunning. We got some great shots of the mountains and even went on a little moose hunt… no luck, and carried on south to Soda Springs, ID. Soda Springs is made of mineral salt springs that the pioneers called “Beer Spring” because of the natural soda springs they could drink. We took some pictures of the nearby geyser, which after Old Faithful was a bit underwhelming, but to pioneers it was probably a welcome site. We continued on small country roads to get to Craters of the Moon State Park. 2,000 year old lava covers acres of land forming a landscape that looks so foreign astronauts practiced navigating here because it would help them prepare to walk on the moon. It truly looks like an alien place and we can only imagine what the pioneers thought when they arrived here years ago. We walked along the paths winding through the lavabeds, and even went down into an ice cave, which was so bizarre considering it was over 80 degrees above ground. After leaving Craters, we thought it would be good to get to our campsite on the earlier side and we headed straight to Glenns Ferry and Three Island Crossing. This is the site where pioneers would ford the Snake river – opting between taking a ferry or fording the river alone. It’s difficult to imagine getting a wagon across such a river, and we were thankful for the modern bridges of today. We found a campsite in Three Island State Park and set up the tent. After dinner we started a fire and roasted some marshmallows to make s’mores. Oregon is on the horizon for tomorrow!
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