From East Canyon we headed north to another lakeside campsite, this one called Rendezvous Beach (nope, no idea) next to Bear Lake, which straddles Utah and Idaho.  Bear Lake is much bigger than the other lakes we’ve camped by and is different in being a natural lake (well the US Corp of Engineers has meddled a little at the north) set in a bowl beneath mountains.

Bear Lake also has a ski area, although this was closed when we arrived so no opportunity to get any value from the 50% additional we paid for our travel insurance to cover us for skiing.

Ok, enough of the whinging about insurance, the lake is freshwater from the snow melt above and because of the concentration of minerals is incredibly blue (bluer than the blue stone of Galveston even) and around the edge you can look through to the bottom and it reminded us of the Aegean.

It’s early in the summer season for Bear Lake and the campsite had only three other RV’s when we arrived and during the time we were there the maximum number was about eight RV’s and three tents so we picked a site on the lakeside which had the best view, so far, from Reg that we have had.  Opening the door let onto the beach with the clear blue lake framed with snow-capped peaks in the background.

We cycled and walked around the lake, didn’t get the kayaks out as it was too cold and too big, watched a number of birds, some of which we could even identify and generally had a lovely laid back time.  We were told by Merlin, who owns a couple of drive-in restaurants called oddly Merlin’s, that the area goes from a population of 310 to over 50,000 during the peak season between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  You can see this is true by the number of hotels, time shares and condominiums around the lake, plus a fair number of obvious summer homes shuttered for the winter.

After three nights in Bear Lake we decided to move on up into Idaho, towards Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Because of the distance, we stopped over at Massacre Rocks State Park in Idaho.  A lovely setting on the Snake River where in the 1870’s a party of pioneers were ambushed by an Indian war party and ten of the pioneers were killed, hence Massacre Rocks.  The river was flowing incredibly strongly and we were advised not to use our kayaks, indeed the head of the park felt it unlikely they would open the river to kayaks until July at the earliest.

The next day we went on to Craters of the Moon, the wind was up and it was very grey.  This is important information as we set off to walk around one of the most desolate landscapes in the US.  Craters is a large area of volcanic rock that was deposited from the Snake Valley rift between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago, geologically it’s about five minutes ago.  The area has unique features, such as; cinder cones where the ground is covered in small particles that were blown out of fissures and settled into cones; spatter cones were the lava was spat out and gradually forms a chimney type structure; lava tubes where the surface cooled, the lava then drained and left a tube and sometimes a cave beneath; kipukas where a vegetation ‘island’ is surrounded by lava flows.  We walked around the terrain and it gives an insight into the violence the earth can throw up at any time, geologists believe the area will erupt again at almost any point and it is on the same rift that Yellowstone is on and at some point, a massive volcanic eruption will occur with devastating effect on the continent.

We briefly visited the Experimental Breeder Reactor One (EBR-1) which is close by and is the first nuclear reactor that provided more power output than that input and led the design for many of the worlds current reactors.  Odd that the major nuclear power research station would be next to one of the most active volcanic regions of the world but if Yellowstone blows up I don’t think anyone will notice about the numerous reactors and storage sites going up too.

After Craters we visited Idaho Falls, the two places of interest being the artificial waterfall on the Snake River created for hydro power and a large Mormon Temple, otherwise not much to look at and a very disappointing museum!

From Idaho we crossed into Wyoming and through Jackson Hole into the Grand Teton National Park.  The park was named by French fur trappers who felt three of the peaks resembled ‘Tetons’ and named them ‘Les Trois Tetons’, the closest translation would be ‘The Three Tits’, so we are now camping in a park called Big Tit National Park.  Despite my puerile sniggering the Teton range consists of nine baby mountains pushed up only 15 million years ago and eroded by glaciers to form a remarkable range that simply jumps from the alluvial plain below into the ski.  They are all snow peaked with several glaciers still upon them and below flows the Snake River currently full of snow melt. 

The park is waking up from winter and we have walked along trails still covered with some snow and while the moose have mainly migrated north, there are still a number of elk and bears in the park.  We haven’t seen bears but have caught sight of elk, pronghorn deer, yellow bellied marmot and beavers.  We have bought a bear spray which we have been instructed in how to use by the rangers and warned against letting off in enclosed spaces, when someone did so in the visitor centre they had to shut it for a whole day to let the smell escape!

Enough from me, next week Alex will update you all on further sightings and we’ll be moving on to Yellowstone itself.

M