Well, this morning I had to make a decision. I was debating between City of Rocks National Reserve and Craters of the Moon National Monument. We got several suggestions to check out Craters of the Moon and nobody mentioned City of Rocks. So, naturally, I chose City of Rocks.
But, I worked out a stop at Craters of the Moon on the way to the next destination.
Today's drive would be about 315 miles, so we didn't plan for an early departure, at least not as early. However, when we plugged in our Pressure Pro TPMS, one of our inside dual tires was low. The tire pressure sensor for that tire is on a valve stem extender, and it seemed to be a little loose. I don't know if that was the culprit, but the tire held the pressure after I tightened everything.
I went ahead and inflated all the tires to their proper pressures since they dropped a little with the cooler temperature. We got out of the Walmart around 9:30 and were on our way headed west on I-80.
Checking the TPMS along the way, I noticed one tire on the opposite side hadn't increased in pressure like the other three tires. That didn't make sense, so we pulled off at Little America to get gas (and their 75-cent ice cream cone). After fueling up, I checked the tires again and used our compressor to fill up the newly offending tire. It was an outside dual tire, and maybe I didn't get the TPMS sensor threaded well enough after I inflated it earlier.
Anyway, after about an hour of delay messing with the tires, we were back on the road with Linda behind the wheel. We crossed into Utah and picked up I-84 north. Thankfully, all the tires were behaving properly.
I took a couple of photos of the beautiful Utah landscape. When asked about our favorite places, the five national parks and the various national monuments in Utah are at the top of the list.
Crossing into Idaho, we took the Malta exit (Exit 245) and took the back roads to the City of Rocks Scenic By-Way.
Now, the City of Rocks National Reserve is jointly run by Idaho Parks & Recreation and the Federal Department of the Interior, and it gets kind of confusing. There is a section of rocks north of City of Rocks known as Castle Rocks State Park where there is a lodge and a bunkhouse for groups and what they call a "Glamping Yurt".
But the state also has a campground called Smoky Mountain Campground which is separate and on the road farther south. It's actually on the road leading to City of Rocks. It's way more convenient to City of Rocks than Castle Rocks, but it is operated by the state under the Castle Rocks State Park. I told you it's confusing.
Smoky Mountain Campground has large sites, 30-amp electric and water hook-ups along with a dump station. AND you can get a cellular data signal.
Now City of Rocks has camping as well, but it's not really a campground. They have a series of clustered sites scattered over a couple miles, but most of them will only accommodate a tent, Class B motorhome or camper van, truck camper, or a trailer under 20 feet. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring, but that's about all they have in common. There are no hook-ups and no cell service. There are vault toilets and pumps for water scattered around.
The sites are quite varied and, out of the 64 spots, they only list 5 as RV sites (20 - 25 feet). Some of them have spectacular views, and some of them have no views. Some are quite private and others have no privacy at all. Some only have parking for a passenger vehicle. If interested, you can click here for a map and chart with a brief description of each site: City of Rocks Campground.
We planned to stay at Smoky Mountain Campground, although we didn't have reservations. I had checked online and knew there were four or five sites open for two nights when we left Rock Springs this morning. However, we arrived way later than I had expected given our morning tire pressure issues, and I was hoping they hadn't been snagged.
We found a site we knew was open for one night, but I went to talk to the camphost about two nights. Fortunately, I remembered the site numbers where the reservation system said there were two nights available. He checked and confirmed they were still available.
We took Site 37, one of the 6 equestrian sites which are separated a little from the main camping loop.
The site was plenty large enough, but it wasn't as level as we'd hoped. However, we're getting better at leveling in less than ideal situations.
There was a nice view out over our neighbor's trailer.
Now, we would later learn that the picnic table and fire ring in the photo above are not ours. The road between us and the A-frame pop-up is another site. If I had known that, I would have taken a site in the main loop. Oh well.
Next, we found that Idaho State Parks pricing is a bit hard to nail down. They charge a campsite fee (Idaho residents pay less), but then they add a "motor vehicle entry fee (MVEF)" for any vehicle with an engine. So, our campsite fee was $33-something for the campsite including the $5 for the motorhome and tax. AND then we had to pay an additional $5 per day for our Jeep.
Idaho residents can get an annual pass for $10 per vehicle to cover the MVEF at all parks (for that specific vehicle) until their vehicle registration expires at which time they can renew. For out-of-staters, you can purchase an annual MVEF pass for $40, but remember that's only good for one vehicle, so if you have two, you would need to purchase two annual MVEF passes and see if the math works to make it worthwhile. Basically, the annual MVEF at $40 per motorized vehicle means it's worthwhile if you plan to stay in an Idaho State Park for more than eight days in a year.
So, just be aware that motorhomes towing cars will be charged $5 more per night than trucks with trailers. We traveled with the truck and an extra vehicle before, so we would have paid the same either way.
At $38/night, it's a bit over-priced on my value meter, but it is nice to have hook-ups and a cell signal way out in the middle of nowhere. And it's just for a couple of nights. Plus the views from the campground ain't bad.
AND being surrounded by the awesome, fresh aroma of sagebrush makes me very happy.
After getting settled in, it was too late to go to the park Visitors Center, so we drove the three miles from the campground and entered City of Rocks National Reserve for an afternoon look around.
By the way, as of this writing, there are only three National "Reserves" - "a Reserve being an area of nationally significant resources that are protected through a program of local land use management supported by federal financial and technical assistance" according to the National Park Foundation. Supposedly that has something to do with the fact that much of the land within the reserve is owned privately by local ranchers who continue to use it as ranch land and perhaps the fact it is locally managed by the state of Idaho.
We drove around most of the roads in the park and took some photos, but we'll incorporate all that into tomorrow's entry.
Welcome to Idaho!
Howard and Linda,
Since you are near I-84, check out Malad Gorge State Park near Hagerman, ID. What is cool about it is that there is a waterfall underneath the I-84 overpasses over the upper part of the gorge. Further south in Malad Gorge, there is a "cove" where we discovered a juvenile eagle on the cliff face a few years ago.
https://terrymiller.smugmug.com/Idaho-Images/Malad-Gorge/
South of Mountain Home, Idaho is Bruneau Canyon, although it is a bit of a drive down off of I-84.
https://terrymiller.smugmug.com/Idaho-Images/Bruneau-Canyon/
Since you didn't go near Craters of the Moon, you missed the opportunity to check out EBR-1, America's first nuclear power plant.
Terry
Posted by: Terry Miller | Friday, June 15, 2018 at 11:28 PM