SNOWY MOUNTAIN PEAKS, RIVER GORGES, AND A WILDFIRE.
Day 14 – It rained most of the night. When we got up at 7:30 a.m. it was cloudy, 44 degrees, and a light wind. We were not in a big hurry to leave this morning; our drive shouldn’t be too long today. Rob put the Utah sticker on the travel map. We will definitely explore Utah more at another time; the northern part was just incredibly beautiful.
255 miles
Added Utah
Willard Bay State Park, 900 W 650 N, Willard, UT 8434, (435) 734-9494, https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/willard-bay/. Check-in 3 p.m.; check-out 2 p.m. The Park is conveniently located just off I-84/I-15, but the noise from the traffic is pretty loud in the campground. Otherwise, this is a great place. Three separate campgrounds/loops: South Marina, closer to Salt Lake City, mostly for boaters; Cottonwood & Willowcreek, quite a bit further up the Lake, close to Brigham City. Cottonwood is full hook-ups; Willowcreek has no hook-ups. Cottonwood is more open than Willowcreek. We had site #043 at Cottonwood, it was a good site; for future reference second choice would’ve been site #56. Site #1 at Willowcreek would be our favorite there. Only 6 miles from the amazing Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, the second largest bird refuge in the U.S. Incredible scenery in this area; we would come back again.
After we changed our original plans to travel to the west coast of CA via the middle of the country, we’d planned to go from Salt Lake City, UT to Nevada, then up to the very top of California on the Pacific coast. Then we started looking at some places in Oregon that we wanted to see. This changes our route again, so now instead of going west through Utah & Nevada, we are going north from here up into Idaho, then crossing over to Oregon. Sounds like amazing new territory for us to see!
We departed Willard Bay State Park at 10:40 a.m.; it was 45 degrees, cloudy with some wind gusts. Our plan was to drive for 3 ½ hrs. to Twin Falls 93 RV Park in Filer, Idaho, just south of Twin Falls, ID. We wanted to stay close to Twin Falls because they have a place, Shoshone Falls, which is supposed to be really beautiful. We’d thought we could go there after checking in to the campground early this afternoon. We took I-84/I-15 north into Idaho. The scenery was great, but after what we’ve seen the past few days, we expected nothing less.
The 84 and 15 split off; the 15 kept going north into Pocatello and beyond. The 84 went north & west through Twin Falls & Boise. We took I-84W, and once again the scenery was awesome with snow-capped mountains & the farmlands below them. The Snake River cut through the landscape below Twin Falls, leaving a huge gorge in its wake.
We arrived at our planned campground (we didn’t have reservations, assuming they wouldn’t be busy) at 2 p.m. The campground was fully booked. We decided to continue driving, skipping Shoshone Falls. After some research, we found a state park, Three Island Crossing State Park, in Glenn’s Ferry, about ½ hour farther along on I-84W. I called to check availability & they did have sites.
We started seeing smoke in the distance. At first we thought it was just polution from a factory. As we got closer, we saw it was a large wildfire. The police & highway patrol were routing people off the Interstate onto a smaller, bumpy road. Both directions of I-84W were being shut down. Eventually we were able to get back on & proceed to the State Park, but the detour delayed us & we didn’t arrive until 4 p.m. What started out to be a short day of driving turned out to be longer, but we’re very glad it worked out the way it did. This was a wonderful campground overlooking the green water of the Snake River, the cliffs, and the gorge.
We drove around the two large loops & picked our spot, a great site, large & nestled privately in some trees & bushes. The first (upper) loop was overlooking the River but it was pretty crowded & most the sites were open. We chose site #59 in the second (lower) loop. It was beautiful out, 66 degrees, breezy & sunny.
After we set up & had an early dinner, we took a walk to check out the views of the River. A trail was near our site & it meandered through the trees & bushes. We saw deer and the Snake River with the cliffs beyond. I think we could stay a week or two here & be perfectly happy.
End of Week 2, Trip #3.
