City of Rocks

Our latest adventure started out late Friday.  It was one of those we have 24 hours free we should go somewhere afternoons.

Several weeks ago after getting my passport stamped at Zion National Park, it got me thinking about what other parks were nearby that I could get a stamp (that I didn't have already).  City of Rocks in Idaho was the closest one.  I put that on my list of places to visit but didn't realize we'd be going so soon.  Matt and I packed in just a few minutes and headed out the door (okay, we looked for the National Park Pass for 20 minutes and never did find it. ARG!)

It was a nice quiet drive to Albion, Idaho.  I say quiet because I slept most of the way.  Cars for whatever reason put me to sleep.  I did wake up by the time we got to North Ogden so I didn't miss anything I hadn't seen.  

We drove through lots of farms and cattle ranches.  I kept wondering what it is like to live out, way out, away from the city.  You'd drive along and you'd see a house and then drive another few miles and see another house.  These people must be incredibly organized because running to the store for milk is certainly not an option.  I also wondered how do they get internet? Surely, being this far out they have to have internet.  If not, that would be so hard.

We drove through lots of farms and cattle ranches.  I kept wondering what it is like to live out, way out, away from the business.  You'd drive along and you'd see a house and then drive another few miles and see another house.  These people must be incredibly organized because running to the store for milk is certainly not an option.  I also wondered how do they get internet? Surely, being this far out they have to have internet.  If not, that would be so hard.  

They even gave us breakfast. 

We spent the night in a quaint little hotel called the Marsh Creek Inn.  It's an older motel, family run I'm guessing.  You know this when they had you the key and it's a real key.  I imagine this place is beautiful in the summer.  Tonight it wasn't bad, just cold and windy so we didn't spend anytime outside.  By the time we woke in the morning it had snowed a bit and was even more cold.  

We took off towards City of Rocks which was just 25 miles away.  We drove through some really small towns along the way.  Elba and Almo being two of them.

Relief Society gets it's own building.  Cool!

Elba's old stone chapel (LDS)

I loved the General Store in Almo.  This was clearly the gathering place of the area.  It was the store, post office and restaurant all in one.  The owner was baking cookies and had to have us wait a minute while she pulled them out of the oven.  A puzzle was started.  She said that people stop in all the time to work on it.  How cool is that?

It's hard to see but on the door when you walk in it says, "Store bills are due".  There are still places in America where you can run a tab at the local store?  Wow, I thought those went away a century ago.  That's neat that your neighbors can still be trusted to pay their bills.

While at the store we found these chips.  Of course, being that they were the #1 flavor in Canada we had to buy them.  They were okay.  Barbecue flavor basically, maybe a little sweeter and less salty.  

Almo had this great school that was built in 1926.  It's hard to find structures this old these days.  It also had this really interesting gate.  I've never seen one like this.  

When settlers first arrived, conflicts with Indians was a huge problem.  This plaque commemorates the 295 people massacred in one encounter.

When we arrived at the City of Rocks Visitor's Center we of course got the passport stamped (YEA!) and watched a short video on the granite formations and how it got it's name.  Basically, this was the way the pioneers came out and passed through this area.  The granite formations looked like the remains of a long forgotten city so thus the name stuck.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go into the park (DARN!).  The roads in are not paved and they were just too muddy and slippery.  

The ranger pointed out that we could go back through Almo and visit the Castle Rock State Park which is a smaller version of the City of Rocks and at a lower elevation so the roads wouldn't be as bad.  We took her advice and headed back that way.  Here are a few pictures of this park. 

Instead of driving home we took a side road (Highway 30) which took us to the northwest corner of Utah and into a small part of Nevada.  Neither Matt or I had been this way so we thought we'd go see what it was like.

There was lots of flat, sagebrush land that seemed to go on forever.  Occasionally, you'd see a farm that looked like wheat and again a house out in the middle of nowhere.  We went through a small town called Montello.  You could tell it had seen better days.  Apparently, in the 1920's and may be a little earlier it had been quite the roaring place.  Once the railroad left, it went down fast.

From there we just kept on going till we got back to I-80 where we got on the freeway again and headed towards home.  We drove to Wendover, back to Salt Lake and then home.  On the way home we passed this Tree of Utah sculpture.  Interesting that it's out on the salt flats with nothing else around.  (This picture is off the internet.  Mine didn't turn out too well).

It was a fun drive, fun to get away and see new things.