Since Dad has retired and can spend time in the yard during the week, Saturdays are opening up for more play than work. So, Friday, June 4th, after work, we headed up to Almo, Idaho! Yep, we hadn’t heard of it either. Dad was in Barnes and Noble looking at a book about the 1000 places in the United States that no one has heard of that may be out of the way, but worth seeing and he found Almo. It’s just over the Utah/Idaho border, west of Snowville and Malta and south of Burley. It took us less than 3 hours to get there from Farmington. Almo is in between (a few miles from) Castle Rocks (an Idaho State Park--$5 for parking) on one side and The City of Rocks (a National Reserve--free) on the other. It is one of only 6 such outcroppings of granite rocks in the world and internationally known as a destination for rock climbers. The rocks are amazing including some spires and mounds that are over 60 stories high. Another attraction that weekend was the guided bird hikes. There were 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. We’re into “birding” so we took our binoculars and went on both Saturday hikes (7:30am (ouch) in Castle Rocks and 2:00pm in The City of Rocks.) The amazing guide spotted almost 40 different species of birds on the morning walk (we saw most of them) and probably another 5 or 10 in the afternoon. He could identify them from a distance by their flight patterns and their calls/songs and point them out on different bushes/trees. We learned to tell sagebrush from rubber rabbitbrush (!) from brittlebrush and mountain mahoganies and junipers and pines and he also told us a lot about wildflowers when birds were hiding. We also saw several yellow-bellied marmots, rock chucks, chipmunks and a deer. We had fun, fun, fun. We did not get any photos of birds, but did take tons of rock pictures. On Sunday we took a 3½-hour hike on the Flaming Rock/Box Top Trail into the City of Rocks. Saturday was overcast and cool, but Sunday was sunny and in the mid-70s. My sunburned arms are peeling as I speak/write. The town of Almo is a charming little western town…maybe 150 people…with one general store, one gas pump, one other very small grocery-type store that sold pizza, a historic school, and one upscale motel with a fancy restaurant. Most people (actually there weren’t many people) were camping in nice campgrounds. We really enjoyed our getaway and we’ll have to go again. I've uploaded about 70 photos...it was really hard to narrow down all the interesting rocks we saw over the weekend. Hope you enjoy them and get to go see them for yourselves someday.
Now just where is that yellow-bellied sapsucker? What the kronk is Wallace looking at?????
Early morning birders hiking in Castle Rock, Idaho State Park
Rocks
More rocks
Even more granite rocks
Farther away rocks
Closer up rocks
Mom and sagebrush or is that brittlebrush?
Pine
Looking for the red-naped sapsucker, or the gnatcatcher, or the yellow warbler, or bushtit, or lazuli bunting...(we did see all of these!)
Notice the angle of Mom's binoculars compared to the guide's...obviously not seeing the same thing!
The Almo Inn. Originally this place had 3 cabins (in the middle.) Then they added 8 rooms (2 buildings) for a total of 11. It's the only accomodation in town and had no televison and there was no cell phone coverage either. Quiet and peaceful. Each room was individually decorated in a western theme and had a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom (double-sized jacuzzi tub) and private patio out back. Ours was #8 with a bucket of geraniums on the porch and it was beautiful. We were really impressed.
Here's the restaurant...excellent food. We ate lunch and dinner here on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday. (Actually there wasn't any other place in town to eat!)
Giddyup!
The steakhouse at night. (We ate salmon.)
Our living room. The furniture was made out of rough logs. There were lots of interesting touches including a tray of candles, vases, baskets, western blankets and 3 or 4 photos of wolves.
Bark lampshade!
Our bedroom with comfy kingsize bed and very thick, plush berber-style carpet.
The rocking chair and more wolves.
The bathroom...I want to know where those feathers came from!
A robin in the rafters on our private patio.
The Tracy General Store (and post office) (1894) had wooden floors, an antique cash register and old style phone and shelving...fun. Dad is trying to figure out where he is.
Historic School
Birdhouse in Almo
Field and Stream
Crumbling stone house
Granite mound on the road into the City of Rocks
Mom at Treasure Rock. Tales tell of a stage robbery and lost loot buried under this rock!
Road to the Twin Sisters
Interesting, but not really twin sisters. The sister on the left is 100 times older than the sister on the right.
Dad at the geocache across from the Twin Sisters. It was a level 3.5 hike (no trail) up a rugged and steep rock pile.
But here is the great view from the cache across from the Twin Sisters. Can you see the Little Mule (CRV)?
Mom at Window Arch
Dad at Window Arch
Granite rock
Interesting rock...give it a name!
Rock pile
Wallace Keck was our well-informed guide. He pointed out a nest of large twigs on the cliff and we saw 4 fledling red tail hawks near here. We also saw a flock of 58 pelicans fly overhead!
Oregon grape
Holes in the granite
Along the Creekside Towers Trail on the Saturday afternoon birding hike
More unusual rocks
Shroomage, of course
Granite vertical jointing
Rocks everywhere
Dad the birder
Along the Creekside Trail
Granite peak and aspens
Pair of rock pillars
Balancing rock
Now it's Sunday, a blue sky day. We're starting on our hike along the the Flaming Rock Trail to the Box Top Trail...to find 3 Geo Earthcaches (no ammo boxes, just geological points of interest)along the way. There were many trails that branched off and we took the scenic route which ended up being about 3.5 hours long!
Blue, green and gray
View into the Inner City
First Cache Site--Flaming Rock Window
Mom on a fun part of the trail
Big pocked rock
Geo Earthcache #2...the Clamshell
Mountain bluebells
Lost Arrow Spire--Earthcache #3
Rock next to Lost Arrow
At last, the Box Top
Long-range view of The City of Rocks. The biggest whiteish mound in the center is called Striped Rock. We hiked in the area left of that.
You might be able to recognize Box Top and Lost Arrow and the Clamshell.
Dad at Register Rock where pioneers signed their names with axle grease.
Swallow nests at Register Rock. Look hard to see a bird in one.
Of course Mom found a mushroom-shaped rock to pose with!
Father's Day was the traditional...tender filet mignons on the grill (some were so fat they had to get a second shot), Autumn's pasta salad and green salad, Donette's baked potatoes with sour cream and grated cheese, Airie's rolls, blue berry pie and BYU Creamery vanilla ice cream. Afterwards we played croquet and badminton. It was a fun time for all. Thanks for helping us celebrate Dad.
Ready to go!
Posing players.
Baron's was the first ball (black) to become poison and Mom (yellow) was second. The vulture is waiting.
Autumn balancing on the curb and trying to retrieve her ball from the rough...
Here are the last 2 players to reach the finish line.
But they ended up being the winners...Airie 1st Place, Autumn runner-up. No wonder they're smiling. That's gotta be a first!
Time for badminton with the bad boys.
Dad and Mom waiting for that ace serve.
Father on Father's Day wielding the raquet.
Father's outstanding form...hard to pick up the birdie on a full stomach.
A photo of our amazingly abundant yellow groundcover along the rock terraces. 
The weekend before Father's Day we had 60 mph winds in Farmington littering the lawns and downing trees around Farmington. This pine was more than 100 years old on Main Street in front of the museum. Sad.
More damage. Our neighbors in the subdivision also lost a beautiful 10' tall tree in their front yard. It took a lot of work to clean up all the leaves, branches, twigs, seed pods, etc. from our yard, but we didn't lose any trees.
