Juniper Campground, near Ririe Idaho along the Ririe Reservoir

 

We had 200 miles travel from Busters to Juniper Campground near Ririe Idaho, which is just east of Idaho Falls.  Very quickly we started seeing farmland.

The clouds came and went throughout the day, and even dropped a few raindrops here and there.  The wind from the west sure helped provide good gas mileage.

Lots and lots of hay has been harvested lately.  On many farms you can see where they have the hay all locked down and under cover.  Saw a few semi trucks loaded up with Hay traveling west.  And some fields, like the one above, which still needs to gather up the hay bales and get ready for winter.

 

 

Crossed over the Snake River many times today.  The first was in a deep canyon as we exited Twin Falls.  This one was along I-86 and as you can see, it was very wide.  One of these days we need to spend a lot of time just photographing the Snake River...

Here the Interstate heads right into that mountain and eats you up!  Well, it looks that way, but it really veers off to the left.

Lots of interesting Rock formations as you approach Pocatello.  I think this was part of or near Massacre Rocks State Park, a famous spot along the Oregon and California Trails.  Also known as "Gate of Death", or "Devil's Gate".  The emigrants gave this name to the narrow passage of the trail through the rocks, from the fear of possible ambush by Indians.

This picture I needed help from my brother-in-law Arny, who grew up in this part of Idaho.  This is the Don Plant, constructed in 1944, and was the first fertilizer production facility built by the J.R.. Simplot Company, which still operates it.  That large mound, hill, nearly a mountain behind it is all fertilizer.  To us it looked like coal, but when I talked to Arny he let me know what it really was.  Thank goodness the wind was blowing from the west...did not smell a thing.

Although it was only a 200 mile drive, we didn't get to Juniper Campground until after 2.  Check in is at 4...but we saw no one to direct us, no one has asked for paper work, have not seen anyone other than other campers.  There are three sections to the park.  Section A requires reservations, which I made for one night last night.  Section B and C are first come, first serve sites.  I thought we could probably drive up and snag one of those sites, but it was a Saturday, and I wanted to be sure. 

We have now decided to stay for another night or two because a cold front is coming into the area of the Tetons and I wanted to boondock at least one night there as we pass through.  Tomorrow night it is predicted to be in the low 20's, upper 20's for Monday, and back in 30's Tuesday with a high of 70 instead of mid-50's Sunday and Monday. 

I think Indy is all for staying here, after all, this backyard is so much larger than Sandy and Arnys...but it is shared, and she has to wear a leash....none of which pleases her much.  But anything is better than another day of travel.

And there are a lot of worse spots to stay at for a few days, that is for sure.

 

Ririe Reservoir was created in the early '70s to assist with irrigation and flood control.  It was built on Willow Creek, but Deer Creek, Blacktail Creek and Meadow Creek also feed into the reservoir, and eventually it all feeds into the Snake River.  As you can see in the map above, the lake is very narrow, very long, and very curvy.  It holds 124,000 megaliters, and has a surface area of nearly 4 square miles.  (A megaliter is equal to 264172 gallons).  The reservoir contains six species of fish, rainbow trout, kokanee salmon, cutthroat trout, smallmouth bass, and yellow perch.

As you can see, it is a very photogenic lake, with it narrow sides, along with rocks, rolling hills, and glistening water.