Over the River

We find ourselves in Heyburn, Idaho, this morning. We'll be heading out soon for Green River, Utah. It's another long day of driving...something on the order of 350 miles...but then we'll stay put for three nights while we do some sight-seeing in the area. 

The kitties are such old hands at traveling, they recognized the signs of getting ready to leave when we pulled up stakes yesterday. Sadie decided to head up into her cubby.

Smitty prefers the window seat.

We stopped for fuel before heading to the interstate, and then we were on our way. Here are some things we saw on our drive. 

In our travels, we often see these abandoned structures. I didn't get all of the buildings here. To the left of this structure there was another larger structure that was probably a substantial home at one time. Now it is abandoned and falling in. Often I wonder about the people who built these structures. Who were they? What did they do? Why did they come here? Why did they leave? Why did this place fall into such disrepair? Lots of questions. No answers.

We saw several barns yesterday. These are the best of the ones I captured.

As we approached Ontario, Oregon, we came alongside the Snake River. It marks the border between Oregon and Idaho. We weren't quite there yet, but we would pass into Mountain Time shortly after I took this picture. You can see how hazy the sky was. This is smoke from a wildfire somewhere. Frankly, there are so many fires burning right now, it would be hard to say it came from any one in particular.

We saw black-eyed Susans blooming all along the highway on both sides of the road.

After passing through Ontario, we reached the state line. Bye-bye, Oregon.

Get ready...we're crossing the Snake River and the state line.

And here we are! Helllllloooooooo, Idaho!

We stopped at the first rest area we came to. This sign was displayed. I was surprised at how many tribes came here for the Salmon Festival. Sometimes I think their lives were idyllic. They lived off the land, and traveled from place to place. They had a rich cultural heritage. On the other hand, they could die from minor injuries, and if they broke a bone, it probably would never heal properly. No doubt their lives were hard, but I don't imagine they thought so. 

It's easy to see why this was a favored spot. It was lovely here. Looking west, we saw this:

Standing in the same spot and looking east, we saw this:

Looking at the map, we noticed a state park that looked like a good place to stop for lunch. It was just five miles north of the interstate.

We crossed the Boise River as we approached. I was reminded of a summer when my older twin cousins, Ruth and Rebecca, and I tubed down this river. Great fun and great memories.

Before we go any farther here in the park, though, let's just look at all the ways you could die today. Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times.

That's the Lucky Peak Dam, built in 1949 by the Army Corps of Engineers. You can read more about it at that link I just gave you.

I zoomed in to get a better look at the birds there in the river. 

The water appears to be fairly shallow. Some of the ducks appear to be standing on the bottom.

So we had our lunch and then headed on down the dusty trail. Just east of Boise, it's very dry and flat. Traveling east, we came to more areas of agriculture. We saw fields of corn.

But we saw more alfalfa than anything else. It was cut in places.

Look toward the base of the mountains and you can see where some of it has been baled.

And that was pretty much all we saw during our drive. I'll close this post by showing you some more pictures I took back in La Grande. As I mentioned, we took a second walk around the park, this time with my DSLR with macro lens affixed. You can see fall is approaching.

Some lavender. The bees liked this.

Here's a better picture of the thistle.

This is a reed of some kind growing where the lilypads are.

Something that is pretty even after going to seed.

This is another of the olive trees we saw.

More fall leaves.

A close-up of the wild rosehips.

And yet more fall leaves.

From a distance, it looked as if someone had tried to carve a bird's face here. There were some tool marks where the eyes were, but the hole in the middle appears natural. I can't tell you any more about it. That's all I know.

Here's one of the little bird houses with a nest still inside. It appears to be abandoned at this point.

And that's all I have for you today. On today's drive, we'll cross into Utah where we'll do the first of our sight-seeing. It's another day of driving, and then more relaxation. We'll be visiting Goblin Valley State Park at our next stop. It's been on my bucket list for a while, and so I'm looking forward to that.