Before this road trip, I had never been to Idaho before. And, apart from cutting through Idaho before entering Montana, I could have completely bypassed it. While I wouldn't be able to venture deep into the state, I wanted to see SOMETHING in Idaho. So I asked some of the park rangers in Wyoming for advice on things to see/do in southeastern Idaho, and they told me about some hot springs in that part of the state that I may want to check out.
Driving in southeast Idaho reminded me of driving in southern Nevada, except instead of brown sand and rock, it was green grass. There were few if any trees. Almost like a desert but green. Maybe this is were they grow those famous potatoes?
I continued south and west into Idaho until I arrived at Lava Hot Springs. The water from the springs was fed into a series of pools that you could pay to enter. It wasn't a national park, but it was next to a large hill and provided a relaxing setting to rest my muscles (which had done alot of hiking over the past several days).
The pools of Lava Hot Springs They sure love their guns around here...
I left the hot springs around dusk and headed east back where I had come from, stopping to camp for the night in Oregon Trail Park located on the Alexander Reservoir near Soda Springs (42.65761, -111.65362). As its name suggests, this was located along the old Oregon Trail. The view was nice, but the night I camped there it was very windy and there are few trees around.
In the morning I went into Soda Springs, whose main feature is a geyser that was accidentally created in 1937 when they were drilling for natural water to create a swimming pool. Whoops! The geyser would shoot water continuously and actually threw Yellowstone's famous Old Faithful geyser off-schedule! So, the town covered it and now they manually release water for a few minutes every hour, on the hour.
Another interesting site in the town was a post of the "Ground Observer Corps" that operated in the late 1950's. People in these posts would look to the skies for Soviet invaders.
After leaving Soda Springs I headed south to Bear Lake. This pretty lake sits among the hills on the border between Idaho and Utah. It is known for its raspberries and a popular summer treat is raspberry frozen yogurt.
Bear Lake, on the border between Utah and Idaho Raspberry frozen yogurt
After crossing into Utah it wasn't long before I reached Salt Lake City. I visited the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, complete with visitor center and a tour. The imposing Salt Lake Temple is not open to non-LDS Church members, but you can see it from the outside.
Salt Lake LDS Temple LDS Conference Center and roof, with plans from different parts of Utah
After visiting the LDS complex, I had some time to kill before meeting up with a friend. So, I put all my gear into the trunk and drove for Lyft for a few hours! Even though I didn't know my way around Salt Lake City (well, their grid street names make it easy), though the wonders of Google Maps, it wasn't a problem. Nothing like making a few easy dollars while killing time on the road trip!
Finally, the next day it was time to return to Las Vegas. Driving south along I-15, I passed some wildfires burning in the mountains.