Bruneau Canyon, How I Love Thee!

Ah, Bruneau Canyon, you are truly magnificent!

Mom and Dad were down last Friday on "business."  We somehow managed to take care of business fairly quickly and I easily convinced them to embark upon an adventure for the rest of the afternoon!  I pointed the Nismo south, which it practically does on its own right now, and we were off to the desert AGAIN!  Bruneau Canyon was our destination and a truly spectacular one at that!  As you drive out across the flat, sagebrushed desert, you have no indication that there is a gorge so magnificent lurking on the horizon. In fact, it isn't until you pull right up to the canyon rim that you realize the magnitude of the gash the river has so painstakingly carved.  Although you have to drive "way the hell out into the pucker brush" (as my Uncle Ben says) it is so worth the drive!  I love that the canyon hides out there in the desert, waiting for the truly determined!  A welcome oasis for those thirsty for the spectacular amid the flatness, the brownness, the sagebrush, and the monotony of the Idaho desert.

aren't my parents great?  i can't think of anyone i would rather adventure with!  

photos taken at Bruneau Canyon Overlook:

     

i love my mommy!

and my daddy too!

     

dad throwing rocks to see if he could hit the river.

close but no cigar! it's a LONG way down!

hey look!  a REAL picture of me

 (instead of one of my famous "lovely self portraits")

The interesting part of being out in the desert near Bruneau is that the Airforce uses it as a bombing range!

photos taken at Saylor Creek Bombing Range:

OBJECTS may fall from aircraft--like BOMBS???

yep, like BOMBS!

    

Entry  into areas . . . could result into SEVERE INJURY or DEATH?

Since I found these RIGHT across the road from that sign,

I BELIEVE IT!

After leaving the DEATH ZONE we were determined to find the Indian Bathtubs, which were somewhere along the road home.  Well, we found an ELECTROCUTED PELICAN and this crazy bird . . .

A  LONG-BILLED CURLEW!  neato!

but no Indian Bathtubs. :(   We drove around in the desert forever in the completely wrong direction but still never found the hotsprings.  However, immediately upon returning home from this adventure I broke down and bought an ATLAS (Dad has been calling it an AT LAST since it took me so long to buy one!) Gee, that would have made finding the springs quite easy!  Oh, well!  I guess I have reason to adventure back! 

~my favorite photo of the trip~

~MY FAVORITE PARTS OF THIS ADVENTURE~

• MOM and DAD!  It was fun to have companionship after my solo adventures!
• the DICKSHOOTER CATTLE COMPANY!
• the BONES.  Just thought they were fun!
• The CURLEW, the dead PELICAN (just because we reversed for it), the ANTELOPE who ran like the wind when they saw our dust cloud, and another BADGER!
• our crazy attempt to find the INDIAN BATHTUBS because we were SO not even close to finding them!