Leaving Lincoln Nebraska

Today we are leaving Lincoln Nebraska, heading (circuitously) to Minneapolis.

Here is the latest map of our travels to date.  You can click on the map if you want more details.  Be patient though, it may load slowly.

  

Leaving Idaho

 As we left Boise the plan was to head to Ely Nevada on US-93 then east on US-50 to see Great Basin National Park.

The weather was turning cold and a storm was moving in so we started scouring weather forecasts to see where it would be warmest to hunker down and let the storm pass.  That placed turned out to be Vintage, Utah, on the shore of Lake Utah, near Provo.  

It took 3 days to get to Vintage.

On the first day we left Boise and took a circuitous route on narrow farm roads to see the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.  It is certainly the longest place name that I am aware of.

We did see birds of prey but didn't get any pics. Here is some of the scenery we enjoyed.

We crossed the Snake River at Walter's Ferry and took back roads to Bruneau Dunes.

We stopped at the turnoff to Silver City to eat lunch.  Maybe it's an adventure for another day.

Back on highway 78 we continued on to Bruneau Dunes.

That's me ignoring signs that the sand was hot.  It was.  I turned back. 

Bruneau Dunes

Campground at Bruneau Dunes State Park.  We spent the night here.

Sunset in an empty campground at Bruneau Dunes State Park.

Oregon Trail Overlook, off Hwy 30 near Hagerman

Huge chunks of basalt, thrown around by the Bonneville flood.

Some maintenance required.

We spent the night at The Hitching Post in Snowville, Utah

Driving back through the SLC metro area.

Arriving at Lindon Boat Harbor on Lake Utah in Vintage, Utah.
We spent three nights here waiting for the storm to pass.

Bonneville Flood

Professor Shawn Willsey explains the Bonneville Flood.

https://hugefloods.com/Bonneville.html

The Bonneville Speedway is located on salt flats left over from Lake Bonneville.  Driving east on I-80 you cross the salt flats for over 40 miles starting at the Utah/Nevada border.  North to south it is even bigger.

Around the shore of Ancient Lake Bonneville there are "bathtub rings" at several distinct elevations.  These represent where the lake level was constant for extended periods of time.  The wave action on the shoreline created these ledges that are still visible today.

When Lake Bonneville reached its maximum depth of about 1000 ft a breach occurred at Red Rock Pass in southern Idaho and fantastic volumes of water, up to 5 times the current flow of the Amazon River, streamed into the Snake River valley and drained through Hell's Canyon into the Columbia River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.  This caused Lake Bonneville to drop about 400 ft.  

The flood scoured the soil from the plains on either side of the Snake River Canyon and greatly increased the size of the canyon.  It tore up the basalt bedrock and tumbled boulders downstream, littering the landscape.  Today you can see piles of these boulders next to farm fields as they had to remove them to  plant crops.  Some are being marketed as "petrified watermelons".  

The furthest downstream we got was Walter's Ferry, where highway 84 crosses the Snake River.  Exploring Hell's Canyon and the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington will have to wait.

Bruneau Dunes Sunrise

Boise

After another flurry of activity we used Boise as a place to rest for a while and work on some projects for the trailer.  We were pleasantly surprised by Boise and added it to our list of candidates places to settle.  We haven't spent a winter there yet though...

It was in Boise that I received the major components for the electrical system and installed them. This involved a lot of trips to Amazon lockers and Home Depot. 

We found some containers at Home Depot that fit the space in the passthrough storage well.

When I wasn't working on the electrical installation we explored the Boise River Greenbelt, a beautiful multi use path that followed the Boise River through downtown.

We got out and explored some local statuary and murals

We sampled some of Boise's culinary delights.