Rocks and More Rocks

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!