Idaho

Today was another beautiful drive with only a couple of brief stops. If I were more tech saavy I'd post a map with my route on it, but I'm not going to figure that out. So yeah, I drove from Rock Springs Wyoming to Boise Idaho today. Rock Springs actually is prettier than I gave it credit for, as seen in this picture from the parking lot of the hotel:



Route 412 in Wyoming was the most isolated drive of my trip so far. I did not see another vehicle the entire length of the route (only about 30 miles I think). But it was beautiful, and I finally saw some deer. Actually, I hope and think they were pronghorn. There were warning signs on some of the roads I was on, and on one road I saw at least 6 dead deer by the side of the road on one three mile stretch. Anyway, I drove slower along these routes and would occasionally see them running along side the road. Cool.

I stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument today. I had noticed it on the map before but had not though of stopping there, but the landscape was beautiful so I did. The visitor center had many pictures of fossils and a decent video. I hiked some on the Historic Quarry Trail, but kind of wimped out and didn't take the whole trail. I did go far enough to get some different angles of Fossil Butte for photos. I failed to find any fossils myself. The area used to be a giant lake; thinking about that boggles the mind. A huge industry in fossil hunting had sprung up in the early part of the 20th century, but the town of Fossil is all but abandoned.
Fossil Butte:





After that, I drove to Soda Springs, another spot pioneers frequently camped. There are plenty of natural springs in the area, and now a man made geyser. I didn't stay around to watch it do its thing, but here is a picture, and a nice view from Soda Springs:





The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful though lovely. I am now in Boise, which seems like a nice city. I found a microbrewery called Tablerock, and they make a great Orange Blossom Pale Ale. Food was decent too. I drove around some and saw the capital building and the Boise State campus. That is probably going to be it for exploring Boise; most of the museums are closed on Monday, so I'm heading into Oregon tomorrow!