August 20, 2008 - Hat Rock and the Oregon Trail

The portion of the trip getting out to the West Coast was all planned before I even left. I wanted to make sure I got reservations in the areas I wanted to visit. Since it was summer, the hotel reservations filled up fast. Choice Hotels was also running their promotion with mega points awarded after three stays at different hotels. So, I wanted to make sure I stayed at different hotels to gain the maximum possible points.

Since the bonus points earning period ended on August 14th, I could be more spontaneous. After my next hotel (Nampa, ID) I did not have any additional reservations. I decided to make a reservation for Twin Falls, ID. There are a lot of things to see in the area.

Originally, I planned to go down to California and drive through I-80, stopping in various places in Nevada and Utah. I later eliminated California between the wild fires and other things. I also planned to eliminate Nevada and Utah because there is so much to see in southern Idaho that I did not want to miss. But, I decided I ought to add parts of northern Nevada and Utah to this trip. I wanted to see these areas. Although I had been to both states before, I only saw the southern areas.

The major goal of today was to get to Nampa, Idaho. This was thirty-six miles inside the Idaho border and about four hours from Hermiston, OR.

But, I couldn't leave eastern OR without at least seeing a few sites. This is high desert area and wide open spaces. The plant life is so different from what we see in the Northeast. I was glad to be back in the desert area again.

The city of Hermiston seemed to be "cowboyland." Many of the businesses had cartoonish pictures of cowboys on their windows.

I went to Hat Rock State Park in Umatilla, OR. This doesn't seem like much, but it was important to me because it was a site actually visited by Lewis and Clark. It was raining for a while. I didn't get very good pictures at first and had to eventually stop altogether for fear of the camera getting too wet. See photos taken when it was overcast.

But, patience paid off. I waited a bit and the clouds passed by. I was able to get some much nicer photos in the sun. See photos taken in the sun.

See photos of the roads to/from Hat Rock State Park. There are some interesting plants not found in the Northeast.


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I took so long at Hat Rock State Park with photos that I didn't have time to do much else beyond the long drive to the Idaho border. The scenery along I-84 was absolutely beauiful. The interstate twists quite a bit and is quite high. It gives tremendous views of the area. In fact, at a rest stop it's so high up that you could see the land in squares as if you were looking down from an airplane. See the photos.


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After driving quite a bit, I noticed a sign indicating a visitor's center for the Oregon Trail at the next exit. I had to see this. I remember playing MECC's Oregon Trail during elementary school on an Apple IIe. The specific area I visited was the Blue Mountain Crossing. I think this was mentioned in the game. See the photos.

It was an interesting site. There were long walking trails. I didn't go on the trails for lack of time. At the beginning of the trail was a wagon and a box outside the wagon. The box had animal bones in it.

I began to hear thunder. I decided I better get on my way. This made me a bit nervous since I still had three hours to go.

The storm ended quickly. In fact, once the sun came out there were two beautiful rainbows which seemed to hang over I-84. One was very bright and the other was very faint. As I drove along further, I noticed they were on the land adjacent to the westbound side, not over the interstate.

I also noticed several smoking volcanoes in the east part of the state. I tried to find a rest stop where I could get a good picture of them but was unable to find one before they disappeared from view.

A few miles before the border, there was a sign announcing that it was now Mountain Time. An hour just disappeared.

I got into Nampa, ID and was quite tired.