August 27, 2012:From Sunnyside to Baker City and then into Idaho

August 27

Its a pretty drive from Sunnyside to Baker City Oregon. Prairie mostly, or more correctly steppe, with the occasional mountain sticking up. Huge anticlines dot the landscape and the numerous lava flows makes themselves known with their columnar jointing.
Its really amazing when one crosses the Columbia River as its such a grand river in such a dry environment. The locks and dam were something I knew about but had kind of forgot. There are really quite a few things we would like to do here but for now we must get back to Wyoming.

So no digging for sunstones, this trip, or panning for star garnets. (I did purchase some star garnet rough on ebay and we will have it shipped to Wyoming). Our truck made it up and over Deadmans Pass so it should be ok for the rest of the trip.

August 28 

We left Baker City and headed east on Interstate 84. Our goal was to drive to somewhere in eastern Idaho and only have a 200 mile day tomorrow. The first part was clear but then the smoke increased and by the time we got to Boise visibility was really bad.

My allergies started to be bothersome but luckily we drove out of the smoke and the miles flew by. You forget how good the US interstate system is until you have spent time up north. We basically followed the Snake River up stream and it was easy driving until we climbed out of Boise. There we had turned on the air conditioning and we overheated a little. Turning the air off the engine cooled and we were able to finish the hot drive to east of Burley,(it reached 92 and its the hottest temperature we have seen this summer).
There we stayed at a Passport America park, Village of Trees and its one of the nicest parks we have stayed in. In fact we stayed here three years ago on our way to Mono Lake and Alan and Sharon.
So tomorrow we should finish our Alaskan Adventure and I can get started on the repairs from the eight thousand plus mile odyssey. Clear skies