August 25, 2008 - Lamoille Canyon and South Forks Recreation Area

Lamoille Canyon photos are ready. Other photos for this day have not yet been posted.

Note: I didn't think about the fact that classes at my former employer began on this day. (I'm not mentioning the name of my former employer since there could be people I don't know reading this blog.) For the first time in nearly three decades, I was not affiliated with an educational institution when classes began for the fall.

I forgot to mention in my previous entry that Nevada was a lot hotter than southern Idaho. Of course, it is further south and the Nevada desert has a reputation.

I had decided to stay fairly close to Elko today. By fairly close, that does not mean in town. It meant I would not be driving some place ninety minutes or more away. I decided to see Lemoille Canyon and the South Forks State Recreation area.

K-12 school began in the west just after August 15th. As I was driving along, I noticed school on August 29th would be cancelled for fair day. Now, the fairs in our area mostly do not take place during the academic year. But, I wish we had had something equally silly as an excuse to get a day off when I was in school.

Lamoille Canyon
I chose the Lamoille Canyon area first. This was in the GPS as a point of interest, but the GPS took me to someone's home. It kept screaming "recalculating" when I followed the road signs pointing to the canyon.

Lamoille Canyon was the better choice of the two sites I planned to visit. This is a state recreation area and also a national forest. The rock formations are beautiful. You cannot look at this without getting a sense of wonder at God's beautiful creation. The light was perfect for photography. See photos.

The valleys in the Lamoille Canyon area were made by glaciers. They had some kiosks explaining the process. In that area, there are private homes. The loop road allows visitors to look down into the valley.

Since I had plans for two parks that day, I kept reminding myself that I needed to turn around and get some time in South Forks while there was still good light. I kept wanting to go just a little farther into Lamoille Canyon, hoping I'd find the end so I'd have no choice but to turn around. That day I never realized how close I got. Finally, I turned around and headed out so I could get to South Forks.

South Forks State Recreation Area
This is primarily a beautiful lake with a scenic area around it. I believe the total area is 1,650 acres. The lake is very pretty. But, I am definitely glad I spent more time that day in Lemoille Canyon. Still, I got a number of photos here. I also practiced using sagebrush creatively in photos. Since this area had sagebrush and other plants with little grass in between, it made it easy to do some interesting photographs. See the photos.

On the way out of South Forks, I saw something odd in a ditch by the road. As I drove further, I realized I saw an armadillo. It looked awfully red. I decided I had to turn around and see it. This would make an interesting photograph. By the time I found a place to turn around, I figured the armadillo would be long gone.

I got back to the area and saw the armadillo. The odd red was because it was dead and decomposing. In that case, I decided I really did not want or need a photo of that.

Back to Elko
I wanted to start writing postcards. But, I only had samples for myself; I did not buy a bunch to send out. Elko is NOT a postcard friendly city. I even went to a Pilot travel center off I-80. Even they did not have postcards. Usually, the Pilot, Flying J, Love's, etc. stores have postcards. In looking at several gas stations, postcards were not available. I also noticed gas was all over the map. Some places had it at $3.99 while others were above $4. One place was actually charging $4.79 even though you could drive less than a mile to get a much more reasonable price.

As I was driving along, I noticed that the Northeastern Nevada Museum's sign indicated it was still open. This was well after 5 (the normal time small museums close). When I got there, they asked if I was the photographer they had spoken to earlier today. I told them it must be someone else. One of them asked if I was sure I hadn't been by here earlier in the day to talk about a photography job. I told them I was just a visitor wanting to see the museum. They told me the museum was closed and I could come back the next day.

I had dinner at the Mexican restaurant across from the hotel. This time I knew about their portion sizes. I just ordered a taco salad and nothing else. I was stuffed again when I finished.