City of Rocks, Idaho

Thursday Sept 5th – Sat Sept 7th, 2013 – Thursday, we drove south from Salmon to the City of Rocks National Recreation Area, just south and west of Pocatello, Idaho.

Starting in 1843, California Trail Pioneers traveled through this area, stopping at what looked like “a dismantled, rock-built city of the Stone Age”.

 

In this area they found shelter, water and graze for their livestock. In 1852, some 52,000 people passed through City of Rocks on their way to California.

 

  Some of the various rock formations were given names. This rock was called Camp Rock.

On some of these giant rocks, the travelers inscribed their names and the date they were there……..

Sometimes using axle grease or chipping into the rock. Many of these inscriptions are still legible. (It gives one a new appreciation for axle grease!)

This is Register Rock……..with more names and dates……

I imagine that the pioneers wanted to say “I was here”. They had made it through 2/3 of the journey, and many hardships. They may have, also, read the names of those who had been there before them to see if family or friends had made it to that point.

As we read the names, we wondered about all those people and their stories……

We took our time exploring all the different areas of City of Rocks……

We hiked a couple of trails, and walked around the giant rocks……

Fred even climbed a rock or two.

I was content to just and soak up the beauty……

And to think about how many others had traveled through this area and had sat in the shelter of these rocks. I pictured the children running around and climbing on all these rocks as our kids would have done when they were little - or might still do……

We camped at the Smoky Mountain Campground inside of the park.

It really was a lovely site, and very quiet with no one next to us. We took advantage of this site, staying 3 nights, cooking out and enjoying the camp life. One night, the sky was clear with no moon and the stars were out……millions of stars……more brilliant than you can see close to a city! We even saw the Milky Way painting its faint trace across the sky…….