Not gonna lie, today was not the best day.
When I woke up, I had to pee really bad. And the bathroom was really far from my campsite. And the campsites at Craters of the Moon offer little to no privacy. (There is a picture below of my view from my campsite.) The only option I could see was to pee behind my car. As I was squatting, a lady walked by on the path with her dog. She looked right at me and said hello. Seriously? Could she have at least pretended not to see me?? I realized that it was the same lady who walked by staring last night as I was doing my Oklahoma car wash. I don't see what was so fascinating about watching me scrub my armpits with Wet Wipes...
I did two hikes this morning for a total of four miles. The hikes were very pretty, and it was interesting to see all the volcanic features. I definitely did not expect to see pahoehoe lava in Idaho! I was also surprised to see a rainbow of wildflowers growing between the rocks.
But four miles was enough. I decided to move on to my next stop: Hagerman Fossil Beds and Minidoka NM. The fossil beds are important because such a variety of plants and animals were found in one spot, and Minidoka was the site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII. There wasn't really much to see here; just a small visitor center in the town of Hagerman. But I appreciated that the national parks are making an effort to tell all sides of a story. This is part of our nation's history that is often untold, and it's important to remember. I had a great conversation with a ranger about that, and was once again impressed by how friendly and knowledgeable all the park rangers are.
My plan from there was to head down into Nevada and camp at Angel Lake campground in the Ruby Mountains. I read about a hike in Backpacker there that I really wanted to do. After driving really far up a windy mountain road, I arrived at the gorgeous Angel Lake (picture is below) and a closed campground. The website said it was open, so I was not happy. I pulled out the atlas and looked for other campsites nearby. Three hours and half a tank of gas later, I ended up at Motel 6. The Ruby Mountains can suck a big one.
When I woke up, I had to pee really bad. And the bathroom was really far from my campsite. And the campsites at Craters of the Moon offer little to no privacy. (There is a picture below of my view from my campsite.) The only option I could see was to pee behind my car. As I was squatting, a lady walked by on the path with her dog. She looked right at me and said hello. Seriously? Could she have at least pretended not to see me?? I realized that it was the same lady who walked by staring last night as I was doing my Oklahoma car wash. I don't see what was so fascinating about watching me scrub my armpits with Wet Wipes...
I did two hikes this morning for a total of four miles. The hikes were very pretty, and it was interesting to see all the volcanic features. I definitely did not expect to see pahoehoe lava in Idaho! I was also surprised to see a rainbow of wildflowers growing between the rocks.
But four miles was enough. I decided to move on to my next stop: Hagerman Fossil Beds and Minidoka NM. The fossil beds are important because such a variety of plants and animals were found in one spot, and Minidoka was the site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII. There wasn't really much to see here; just a small visitor center in the town of Hagerman. But I appreciated that the national parks are making an effort to tell all sides of a story. This is part of our nation's history that is often untold, and it's important to remember. I had a great conversation with a ranger about that, and was once again impressed by how friendly and knowledgeable all the park rangers are.
My plan from there was to head down into Nevada and camp at Angel Lake campground in the Ruby Mountains. I read about a hike in Backpacker there that I really wanted to do. After driving really far up a windy mountain road, I arrived at the gorgeous Angel Lake (picture is below) and a closed campground. The website said it was open, so I was not happy. I pulled out the atlas and looked for other campsites nearby. Three hours and half a tank of gas later, I ended up at Motel 6. The Ruby Mountains can suck a big one.
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