We started today off in true formhunting for the key. We spent ½ hour looking for the key in all our pockets , suitcases, backpacks, purse, even the cooler! Finally I said that I would go to the truck and retrace our steps to find the key. I got ready to go out the hotel room door and Kevin asked me What is that in your hand? I said the room key. He said isnt that what we are looking for? I said no I thought we were looking for the truck key. So the whole time he had the truck key and I had the room key. We will be more specific when asking about the key now.
We finally headed out and our first stop was the Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park. The park has the largest dune in North America rising 470 feet above the desert floor. I headed up the dune and Kevin took pictures. The wind was strong making the sand feel like pellets hitting my legs. The view from the top was beautiful. The area is also home to many raptors and is a bird lovers paradise (I
thought about you Mary Howell). We hiked a little way around the lake. There were two lakes with creative names of Big Lake and Little Lake. We only saw a hawk as most raptors are night creatures. From this area we ventured onto Bruneau Canyon Overlook. Most of the road was gravel and took us a good deal of time to cover the distance even in our truck. When we got there we knew the view was worthy of the journey. The Bruneau River has cut this canyon as much as 1200 feet deep and it is about 67 miles long. We had this beautiful overlook all to ourselves it was wonderful. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the truck as the wind really picked up and started to head back. Directly in front of us while driving on this gravel road, there was the darkest cloud all the way on the ground. I realized this was a huge sand stormit looked like one of those from an Arabian movie. Not sure what to do we turned into United States Air Force Range road and drove up to the gate. It appeared they folks there were evacuatingthe service man at
the gate said we would have to drive through the storm because going straight meant going through the bombing range. He thought it would be safer to drive through the stormwe agreed! He also said this kind of weather was very unusual. It was a wild drive with strong winds and dust so thick you could barely see in front of the truck. We made it out safe but Kevin was terribly upset that his blue truck was now a dusty white.
Recovered from our sand storm adventure, we headed to Malad Gorge State Park. The Malad River reaches the 2.5 mile gorge and receives a boost of water from numerous natural springs. The water rushes down this narrow lava rock canyon with fury creating rapids called the Devils Washbowl. Then the river drops 60 feet down a beautiful waterfall. Geologist believe there was a great flood in this area many thousands of years ago called the Bonneville Flood. The flood unleashed an apocalyptic wall of water that helped shape the Snake River Plains. All I know is, this gorge and waterfall were spectacular. We drove on down the desert road to Thousand Springs. There were great views of
the Snake River along the way. Along the stretch of Snake River at Thousand Springs, there are waterfalls emerging from the cliffs. These falls are springs of crystal clear water at a constant 58 degrees. The falls were quite beautiful and abundant.
Now the most important thinga car (truck) wash. Kevin would not be able to sleep tonight if he left his truck that dirty J
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