I woke up many times throughout the night cold and when I woke up for good in the morning I was freezing! I will need to invest in a sleeping bag like Travis had for it kept me warm and toasty all night long. I laid in bed for sometime too cold to want to get out from under the covers but by 08:30 I decided it was time to get a move on. Once I got dressed and stepped outside it was a beautiful morning albeit a tad chilly. I remade my entire bed for during the night I had removed all my covers from their original place. I then changed my calendar to August with my screwdriver, placed electric tape on some tubing within my galley and made a protein shake for the road.
On the road I headed towards Crater of the Moons National Monument in Idaho. I was happy to be back on the road and was relaxed throughout the driver and since I finally had some cell service I was able to listen to music. The drive was beautiful and there was sagebrush as far as the eye could see and way off in the distance one could see the mountains in a blurry haze due to the smoke from fires elsewhere. Pulling into Crater of the Moons National Monument it was an out of this world experience to say the least. Lava rock literally covered the land and seemed so alien and out of place. It blew my mind to think that a volcano had erupted in Idaho and has altered the landscape so. The land was completely black and jagged as if the Earth itself wanted to seize you as its prey and never let go.
Walking on every single trail within the park and reading all the information plaques I couldn't take my eyes off of the formations for it was so amazing to see where the lava actually flowed! I attempted to take some pictures but none of them could do it justice; maybe a more experienced photographer would have been able to illustrate the magnitude and exotic aspect of the landscape. In the end I decided to just soak it up in my memory. I could go on and on trying to describe this place but words would never be able to properly paint a picture of what befell my eyes. I will just have to leave it up to your imagination and relive the memory for myself.
Leaving the monument, I was able to find some BLM land near Carey, Idaho called Silver Creek South that was practically the Ritz Carlton of free campsites. It had a restroom, a fire ring, a stove, a picnic table and it was positioned right along a beautiful creek. After parking I called up my mom and we talked about things that were going on at home while I set up camp. When we hung up I proceeded to make the last of the elk burgers and sat down at the picnic table and ate my burger with a vanilla porter whilst gazing out over the creek in pure serenity. When dinner was over I sat at the picnic table and wrote in my journal as the sun set in the sky behind me. The perfect ending to a great day.
 |
| My delicious elk burger! Thank you to Chris! |
No comments:
Post a Comment