Mostly Exploring Idaho

[searching for nowhere]

I’ve been out traveling through Idaho. I really enjoyed it. Not all of my blog posts are done, but there is a good start. Maybe in the next couple of weeks I’ll get them all done. As always, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to send me a message. And know that the blog doesn’t cover everything I seen or did. It general covers places where I liked my photos.

Also, my blog camping map somehow got deleted, so the camping sites no longer link to a blog post except for the sites on this trip. And descriptions are somewhat jumbled. I may work on that this winter.

Enjoy

https://searchingfor.blog/2023/09/12/the-shake-down-trip/

https://searchingfor.blog/2023/09/21/fall-2023-trip-begins/

https://searchingfor.blog/2023/09/25/the-start-to-my-idaho-exploration/

The Most Beautiful Spot in Idaho | searching for the middle of nowhere

Onward | searching for the middle of nowhere

Ooh La La | searching for the middle of nowhere

https://searchingfor.blog/2023/10/02/craters-of-the-moon/

Failed Teton Dam | searching for the middle of nowhere

Highway 28 | searching for the middle of nowhere

Snake River | searching for the middle of nowhere

The Eclipse | searching for the middle of nowhere

https://searchingfor.blog/2023/10/17/road-16/

Back to the Beginning | searching for the middle of nowhere

The trip report is done.

 

[AWG_Pics]

Idaho is a beautiful place with amazing geology. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Occidental]

Nice reports so far, thanks for sharing, you went to a lot of places! Fall in that high country can get cold for sure.

 

[AWG_Pics]

Ahh... the Teton Dam. My summer job while in college, just a month or so after the dam failure, was surveying the flood extent and high water marks from the flooding, while working for the USGS Water Resources Division out of Boise. Spoke to lots of people. One report that stuck in my mind was that the grouting budget was exceeded enormously because the fractured rhyolite making up one of the embankments (right bank if I recall) just could not be filled. Eventually the grouting stopped for budget reasons, over the objections of the engineers and the site geologist.

Do not get me started on cost/benefit calculations generated to justify water projects -- dams in particular.

 

[ski3pin]

Very, very nice! Thanks for letting us come along, what fun!

 

[Foy]

The blue rocks or blue stains on lighter rocks look a lot like azurite or a mixture of azurite and malachite, copper minerals often formed by surface weathering (mostly oxidation) of copper sulfide ore minerals. In short, they appear to have come from a copper prospect or a small mine. The gi-normous Kennecott copper mine in Alaska was discovered due to presence of a large amount of malachite staining at the surface, high up on a mountainside.

Foy

 

[searching for nowhere]

Thanks Foy. FYI I checked DOMAGI's web site and only saw that the USGS had explored the area for mercury in 1965. The geologic map shows nothing, but it was done in 1972 at a large scale. But interestingly when I look at an aerial there is color is the Split Tree Reservoir up hill. I may go back some day for more exploring. The area has many nice spots to spend the night.

 

[clikrf8]

We have driven the Doublespring Pass Road but must have missed this one. Next time. Thanks for the idea.

 

[kmcintyre]

Nice report. As a long time resident of Idaho and a lot of backpacking, backcountry camping, etc. there are some areas that you should explore (but I don't know where you've been, etc.). Like most states, there are so many places and it depends on what you like, etc. You might like high desert, you might like alpine lakes, etc. You could spend a lifetime in any state and not see it all.