Fossils, Springs & Lost Keys
📍 Kemmerer, WY to Lava Hot Springs, ID
Travel Day — plenty of sights to see. Getting used to a later sunset as I travel. A fellow camper caught this beauty.
Tedd, this one’s for you! We were cautioned that we might see some moose but they waited until sunset to come out and see what these shiny things were.
Comment from one of our leaders: “I had to go to Alaska to see moose!”
The Missing Keys
As I got the trailer interior ready to go, I couldn’t find my keys to it. We had looked the night before but they didn’t pop up. You can imagine my spouse’s response to the “misplaced” item… 😬
SO, this morning I looked every place I could remember being. A hunt through the trash, a walk back to the covered area where we had dinner last night. Fearing I may have to give up a G&T before dinner, I skulked to the truck and became a passenger once again.
Fossil Butte
First stop — fossils. And by fossils, I mean FOSSILS.
This is east of Kemmerer, WY. Remember this town as it comes up later. It is an assemblage of Eocene Epoch fossils, which are 56 to 34 million years old. There were three lakes, the smallest of which is Fossil Lake. It was 40 to 50 miles long. The National Monument is 13 square miles. The lake is 595,000 acres.
Coal miners working for the railroad dug up the first fossils. Quarries on adjoining lands have found fossils and may sell them.
In the visitor center, you can see over 2,000 fossils. Fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, reptiles, plants, and arthropods, oh my…
Here are a couple of the things I saw — too much will just put you to sleep…
Sheep & Shepherd Wagons
Driving to the next destination, we saw a lot of sheep grazing. They are followed by shepherds in these unique wagons. They can round up the herd using that horse you see and a Border Collie. One of our rigs saw that happen — but no pic. These wagons are very similar to what I saw at the museum some days ago.
Bear River Valley
Bear River Valley had almost 80 miles of water, cool air, spectacular scenery, and plentiful timber. The emigrants’ spirits were raised after traveling the dry and dusty plains of southwestern Wyoming.
Some of the highlights were the Thomas Fork Crossing where they forded the river. They tackled the Big Hill, allegedly the longest, steepest hill on the wagon trail. It took double oxen to haul the wagons up, and then they had to lower them on the other, steep side.
Wagon Wheel Quilts
We visited yet another Oregon Trail Museum and I learned about wagon wheel quilts. There was a spare wheel attached to the outside of the wagon and, as the women walked along the trail, they could weave pieces of fabric into round rugs. They could then trade these rugs to the Indians for other wares.
The light is weird here as the museum had us in a low-light situation…
Springs Into Idaho
As we entered into Idaho, we encountered springs: Soda Springs, Sulphur Springs, and our eventual stop, Lava Hot Springs.
We did stop at one, Hooper Springs, and you could see the water bubbling up.
We made a stop at Soda Springs where some of the settlers would ford the river. One more Oregon Trail marker.
Found
Once we settled, I looked one more place for those *&$% keys. I pulled out the canvas bag that I use to take our plates and service pieces to meals. GUESS WHAT??? There they were.
Keith has to take credit for this one as he put the bag away… but all’s well that ends well. 77 degrees, nice shade, NCAA Baseball game to watch, and some needlepoint.
“In the tranquility of nature, one finds peace not by searching for it, but by allowing it.”
— Unknown
About Kemmerer
Oh, that reference to Kemmerer, Wyoming. We saw this:
Turns out that this is the construction of a nuclear power plant.