Bruneau Dunes State Park; Bruneau, Idaho

Good morning, my friends. How's everybody doing? Did everyone get a good night's sleep? We sure did. We're way off the beaten path in the state park here, and we pretty much have the place to ourselves. Looking out our back window this morning, it looks like this:

That's our still-hitched-up Jeep in the lower left, but look out across all those empty campsites to the one lonely motorhome across the way. There's one other camper we can see some distance away, but otherwise...that's it. Something we've noticed in these fall trips is that the kids are back in school, and the only folks sharing campgrounds with us are old retired people. Yes, just like us. And so we all turn in pretty early. There's no sitting around the campfire making a lot of noise. Just sleeping. Snzzzzzzzzz.

We have more traveling to do today, but we'll be in Moab tomorrow, and then we're going to have some fun. For now, it's just driving, driving, driving. The kitties are all in for the driving part. Sadie is happy in her little cubby, and she rides here when we go down the road. Smitty likes the spot at the end of the bed, secure between the mattress and the wall.

We saw a few more barns along our route yesterday.

This isn't a barn...more like an abandoned homestead. 

Our route took us through Baker City, Oregon. I inquired of The Google what it was about Baker City that made it "historic," and warranted this sign.

Here's what The Google tells us about Baker City, Oregon:

Platted in 1865, Baker City grew slowly in the beginning. A post office was established on March 27, 1866, but Baker City was not incorporated until 1874. Even so, it supplanted Auburn as the county seat in 1868. The city and county were named in honor of U.S. Senator Edward D. Baker, the only sitting senator to be killed in a military engagement. He died in 1861 while leading a charge of 1,700 Union Army soldiers up a ridge at Ball's Bluff, Virginia, during the American Civil War.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad came to Baker City in 1884, prompting growth; by 1900 it was the largest city between Salt Lake City and Portland and a trading center for a broad region. In 1910, Baker City residents voted to shorten the name of the city to simply Baker, the name change becoming official in 1911; Another vote in 1989 restored the name to Baker City.

On down the road some, we stopped at this rest area. Please tread carefully, my friends. If you slip on the ice, break a bone, and then get bitten by a rattlesnake, I'm afraid we're just going to have to leave you behind. We'll call 9-1-1 first, obviously, because we're not sociopaths. 

Moving on from there, we caught our first glimpse of the Snake River. It's the border between Oregon and Idaho, but we're still well into Oregon here.

You might want to set your watch. We're on Mountain Time for the next week or so.

In just a few more miles...good-bye, Oregon. Yes, we'll be back soon.

Here, we crossed over the Snake River...

And helllllllllooooooo, Idaho!

On down the road, we stopped at yet another rest area. This one had a pretty rose garden.

Also, some pretty lilies.

It also happened to be a historical site along the Oregon Trail.

I wondered about this whole "Bonneville Point" business. We pass by Bonneville Dam on our way through the Columbia Gorge. Also, we've been to the Bonneville Salt Flats west of the Great Salt Lake. But this Bonneville Point in Idaho? Well, you know I had to inquire of The Google about this. Here's what The Google tells us.

Bonneville Point is named for U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Bonneville, an early Idaho explorer whose party reached this viewpoint along an old Indian trail in 1833. Later, it became a fondly remembered location for emigrants on the Oregon Trail as they took in their first view of the Boise River Valley from the here.  

Today, Bonneville Point is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and contains a pavilion with several interpretive signs that provide information on the history of the Boise area and the Oregon Trail. A 1927 stone monument that commemorates this important location is located nearby. In addition, multiple, and sometimes deep, Oregon Trail ruts descend the bluff from the Point to the Boise River. 

Here's a picture from the Bureau of Land Management website. 

(Image credit: "Bonneville Point" by BLMIdaho is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

We had just about another hour to drive from there. Eventually, we turned off the interstate.

We saw this caboose at a "train park" in the small community of Mountain Home, Idaho.

Farther down the road, we could again see the Snake River off in the distance. You can see the area is hazy with smoke.

And for the second time in the day's drive, we crossed over the Snake River.

From there, it was just a few more miles to our final destination.

There's an observatory here, but there are no shows scheduled during our visit.

The hazy skies made for an interesting red sunset yesterday. These pictures don't capture the pure redness of the sun, but you can get a feel for it with the red sky surrounding it.

Here, as it grew less bright, I was able to capture the red color a little better.

The kitties are practicing tandem lap-sitting positions this morning. They'd like to enter the tandem lap-sitting competition in the next summer Olympics to be held in Los Angeles.

Another red sun is rising this morning.

This, being Bruneau Dunes State Park, there are sand dunes here. It was too hot and buggy (think black flies, mosquitos and gnats) here yesterday afternoon, and so we haven't really done any exploring. The dunes are to our west, just over a small rise. With the sun behind them yesterday afternoon, they were in silhouette by the time we arrived. We're moving on this morning, but we'll get out and take a look before we leave. If I'm able to get some pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

Okay, so it's another long day of driving today. Tomorrow will also be a day of driving, but we'll be in Moab then, and we'll sit still for five nights. For now, it's time for some frozen breakfast burritos. (We'll warm them up in the microwave first, of course.) And then we'll be on our way.