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Camas National Wildlife Reserve
Today it was time to get out of town again. So PMB and I drove up to the Camas National Wildlife Reserve, which is not too far from the Idaho/Montana border. I presume that on the Montana side, it's beautiful. On the Idaho side, whoa, there sure is a lot of lava in Idaho!! The other night the girls and I watched a CNN video of people driving around Iceland.
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sarah_create, who lived there, says that the interior of Iceland is "uninhabitable." Now I think I get what she means, because the interior of Iceland seems to be very, very, very similar to SE Idaho (only, Iceland is greener, and I doubt it has sagebrush). But the whole thing as far as you can see is the hardened remains of bubbling lava. And volcanoes, like the two in the foreground here. They are Menan Buttes, the larger of which we climbed last week.
Despite all this, the NWR is basically a marshland. I'm seeing all these different landforms together, but my brain is still not quite believing they can coexist. However, they do. We didn't see any big game (I think you have to go NOT at noon, and maybe going on the hunting paths would have produced them...but hiking where people are possibly shooting doesn't sound very smart to me, so we stuck to the main viewing circle). We did see a lot of birds.
Sandhill cranes. They are huge!! Easily bigger than my 3YO, and getting close to my 6YO.
A coot:
A red-tailed hawk:
We saw another bird of prey (maybe a peregrine falcon?), but we surprised it and I didn't have a chance to take a picture before it flew away.
Trumpeter swans! Yes, the same ones EB White wrote about. They are endangered and rare, but they live here. I have seen them fly over my house before. :) They make a distinctive sound that's not like any other bird sound I've heard.
On the way back we stopped to get out and look at the Snake River. We had a nice view of the other side (the "front" side, as it faces human habitation) of Menan Buttes. The R is for Ricks College, but as that's been BYU-Idaho for over ten years now, I don't think it's being maintained.
And finally, Henry's Fork of the Snake River. I am quoting that directly, since Henry's Fork comes out of Henry's Lake, in the extreme NE corner of SE Idaho (ie, on the way to Yellowstone in the north), and the Snake River originates just above Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park and flows south along the ID/WY border until it crosses into Idaho a little south of Victor. Ie, completely different rivers. But maybe this is where they join up?
Wishing you a peaceful fall!
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Sandhill cranes are amazing.
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Ah, Iceland.
Iceland is too harsh a climate to even grow sagebrush. The reason it appears green is there is so much rain: moss and other things similar to moss grows on the lava. Plus, there are many glaciers (also inhabitable.) It is too harsh a climate (cold) to even grow wheat, though in some years rye can be grown.
The interior (or 80%) is so rough, that it is essentially impassable. And so yes, no one has ever been able to live in much if Iceland, as it is impossible (except for a short high adventure camping sort of trip.)
Maybe you'll get to visit Iceland someday--a fun trip.
Cool crane photo.
A crane lives nea a small lake near us. I'm not sure what type. I am always sad when he leaves in the fall--a sure sign that winter is coming.
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The Icelandic video I saw had scenes that looked like they were straight out of Craters of the Moon. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aa_next_to_pahoehoe_lava_at_Craters_of_the_Moon_NM-750px.JPG or http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-idaho/Craters%20of%20the%20Moon-500.jpg). Like, without a paved road, it would be impossible to even drive across.
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But yes--there are beautiful parts and not so beautiful parts everywhere.