Turns out our hotel has a good pick-up breakfast, so we ate in the lobby and made off with bananas and Kind Bars for lunch. This was supposed to be an easy four-and-a half hour drive to Lava Springs, Idaho, but it took us considerably longer. Again we cut through part of Yellowstone, seeing very little wildlife. The day had begun as overcast, but true to form it turned into a brilliant sunny, warm day. As we drove along through the large valleys we went through a series of landscape changes.
In the park, of course, there was no agriculture, but after we emerged from it going west we saw land irrigated for grazing cattle. At one point one of us looked left (south) and immediately recognized the iconic profile of the Tetons far, far away. I was able to get a picture that showed them. All of us have been in Jackson Hole and have friends and family there so we saluted them from afar.
A bit further on we came upon a landscape with all scrub sage plants, soil that looked poor, and no flat ground. Occasionally we would pass a big industrial plant. Soon we are in Idaho, going through the area famous for Idaho potatoes with arable land and field-length irrigation on wheels that can be moved. Huge windmills were visible to the south.
MT BIG SKY: Landscapes and ranches.
The further we got towards Lava Hot Springs, the more agricultural it got; there is a mixture of some grazing and crop growth. You can always site the house area by a tall growth of trees amidst acres and acres of farmland. We have been in the west for more than a week, and we are still not used to the scale and the big sky, although we recognize and admire it.
IDAHO ISLAND PARK AND HARRIMAN STATE PARK
We turned off the main road onto a road that led us into a canyon and suddenly there was Lava Springs. It is a honky tonk small town jammed packed with families and young people. There is a very large public pool and many smaller pools associated with the motels and hotels that line the main street. We had booked a room in the Lava Hotel and Spa, which was a shot gun room with a front door on the street and a back door onto the area where we parked. The pool was a short walk away, but Rosalie and Sarah, who had been driving all day, were tired. I put on my bathing suit and traipsed down the hill into a garden with a small pool. A man and two women were already there and gave me some useful tips about restaurants. The temperature of the springs and of the creek that runs through it is 102 degrees, which for backs stiff from days spent in the car was much appreciated. For comparison, I think the temperature of the springs at Hot Springs, Virginia is 85 degrees.
ID LAVA HOT SPRINGS AND UTAH DRIVING DUE SOUTH TO SALT LAKE CITY
We sought out several restaurants, but they all had long waitlists, so we ended up having a good meal at the Chuckwagon Restaurant diagonally across from our hotel. We were back there eight hours later to have breakfast on this the last day of our cross country trip! Sarah again drove the half day from Lava Springs to Salt Lake city. As soon as we got on the interstate and drove into Utah, driving became more demanding as the number of lanes doubled and cars and trucks roared by us going 85 m.p.h.. We drove for miles besides the highly industrial areas north of the Great Salt Lake, with Sarah handling the change of pace admirably.