Experimenting with roads and kites

I have found Idaho to be harder than any of the preceding states to sniff out places to overnight in, or at least the options feel limited because so much more of the state is given over to fenced off ranch land. Maybe it's a relic of the fact that early settlers got this far and couldn't face the depradations of the Oregon Trail further west so simply set roots on this side of the Cascades. Either way, I've had to work harder to find the good stuff. Having said that, when I have, the results have been entirely worth it.

From baking to freezing in a thousand year old lava tube

Day 4 finds me moving further East across the middle of Idaho. After a brief stop at Silver Creek for a dip it was on to the Craters of the Moon National Monument: a massive lava field stretching for miles across the plains. Thousands of years old flows have solidified and in places left behind lava tubes and caves you can climb or walk in. It was amazing how cold they were just a few feet below the baking hot surface.

More photos from Craters of the Moon

The only human in 100 square miles

On the way back down from the mountain forests of Sawtooth, the peaks gradually lose height, the trees thin out and the landscape starts flattening back to plains and rolling hills. A little real map planning had a small road, ID46 leaping out at me to link back to the US20 East. Halfway down the road, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny sign for 'City of Rocks Road' pointing off to a winding track to the West. Game on.

Chipmunk fishing in Sawtooth Forest

Day 2 in Idaho finds me traversing the deep twisty depths of the assorted National Forests of Challis, Boise and Sawtooth. The forests don't seem as dense from the road as in Oregon, but there was a lot more evidence of Forest Fires leaving behind dead blackened or sun bleached blasted trees.

Hotel, schmotel - car camping is the way to go

Coming down from the misty Oregon mountains and continuing inland towards Idaho, the first signs of high desert plains began to appear with horizon spanning rolling hills of sagebrush. For the early Oregon trail travellers, trying to reach the West coast going the opposite way, the contrast between sagebrush track plains and deep canyon dense forest would have been harsh, if not deadly in winter.