Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Massacre Rocks State Park/ Hiking the OR Trail, #WYFF

For photos of the camping sites see this post. There are tent sites, pull through sites and back in sites. All RV sites were full hook ups. It cost us $32 (camping fee, park entrance fee and taxes).  The park is right near a rest area and is outside of American Falls, ID.  Here is the Official ID website for the park. We saw several sites where we would fit with a 38 Foot Class A and a toad. 

DSCN6343 devilsgateidaho e
Decumanus at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

This is a fascinating park. It's named for these big formations on the banks of the Snake River in Idaho.  We discovered three names for the boulders - Massacre Rocks, Devil's Gate and Gate of Death. The area was widened for the freeway to go through.  At the time of the Oregon Trail - one wagon could go through this pass at a time.  This is the site of  massacres by the Shoshoni in 1851 and 1862.

Wagon trains stopped in the area and camped for the night. It's fairly easy to find wagon ruts still left from those times. Many carved their names and dates on Register Rock as they camped in the area. 

We began our explorations at the Visitor Center. There are some stories from the area, a couple of displays and diaries to look at. They also have a small bookstore. 




We left the Visitor Center armed with new information, maps and directions from the friendly clerk.  We headed out to hike along the Oregon/California trail. It was beautiful and brought history alive. 
Stacia, Nolan, Alex & Michael at the Snake River
 

 At this point I was told, "You take photos of the flowers, we're going to find the Oregon Trail." 

 These are some of many wagon ruts left from the migration west. 


Confirmation we found the right trail....



Allowing people to hike the ruts, does keep them well-defined.



We were happy to complete the hike and find Nimo waiting for us. 

Stacia really wanted to swim in the river. She asked at the Visitor Center and was told, "The water is 48* degree. Each year we lose people who jump in and die within minutes due to hypothermia."

She replied, "So that means no?" 😯

The lady relented and told her it WOULD be o.k. to hike the trail to the dock and dip her toes into the Snake River. That is just what we did on our way back from the Oregon/California trail.


COLD WATER

Look how red his feet are! 
 We hadn't remembered our water bottles, and two of us hiked in Crocs with no socks....but we had fun and made memories. 

We headed back to our campsite for dinner. We saved Register Rock for tomorrow morning. 

Michael spent time editing a paper for Krista on Women in Leadership. I need to read that paper.  I went for an evening  walk with Yuuki. The  kids enjoyed their screens. 😯

Uchi seen from down the bank.

Eventually, I would down around the river. Yuuki chased a couple of ducks and thought it was great fun. There were hundreds of swallows flying around.....

They were flying back to holes in the side of this bluff




 Michael was done with the paper when I got back to Uchi. He and the kids came down to watch the fish jump and swallows fly.



  #WYFF are weekly snapshots of where we are - and I know it's NOT Friday, but since we're usually not having fun on Friday, I'm going to start using a bit of creative license. I can't imagine anything better that this day. 

2 comments:

Hope Bency said...

These pictures remind me of our time in Idaho. The Snake River is beautiful, especially this time of year.

Anonymous said...

dad was raised on the snake river. G'Pa/G'Ma T (his parents) had land that went right down to the river. The house is now gone and the area is a park going right down to the river. :) :) :)

One of these days dad wants to go back there and we plan to do that.

lp mom t.