Goodbye Beautiful Idaho! We’ve Been on the Road Too Long.

Heading Home; Saying Goodbye to Beautiful Idaho

On this episode of Traveling with Terriers we spend one last day in Idaho before crossing back into Wyoming. On the way, we stop at Soda Springs to see a man-made geyser, the Oregon Trail Museum in Montpelier, and see some beautiful scenery along the way.

Back on the Wyoming side, we spend a bit of time exploring the town of Kemmerer, WY, home of the first JC Penny’s store, and a great dog park! We end the day at the Little America Resort between Evanston and Rock Springs, WY.

Soda Springs Geyser

The geyser at Soda Springs, Idaho isn’t a naturally occurring one. This makes it different from pretty much any other geyser on the planet. The story goes that in 1937 a group of businessmen wanted to make a bath house in Soda Springs. So, they decided to drill baby drill, and at the depth of 315 feet hit hot water. This hot water shot up to a height of 70 feet above ground! Unfortunately, the water also contained lots of minerals (who would have thought that a hot springs would have THAT?!) which, when it cooled became hard water. Since hard water can cause all kinds of trouble, from clogged pipes to mineral deposits on the bath house fixtures, the businessmen abandoned their get rich scheme, and promptly left town.

While the geyser did not attract tourists, it did attract the attention of the US Government. It seems the geyser was causing Old Faithful in Yellowstone to be less, well, faithful. The Soda Springs geyser draws water from the same underground spring as Old Faithful. The extra water usage was throwing Old Faithful off its schedule. So, the town of Soda Springs put a timer on the geyser. Now it goes off at the top of every hour, spewing hot water 70 feet in the air, and Old Faithful went back to its normal schedule.

This was definitely really cool to see. We are glad we stopped at this little off the map spot on our way out of beautiful Idaho.

On to Montpelier!

The National Oregon/California Trail Museum in Montpelier, Idaho was one of the highlights of our day. I had a visit to the museum on my list. After talking to a couple who had visited the day before, Danny got really excited about it, too. This living history museum details the journey that thousands of men, women and children traveled in the mid to late 1800’s. The stories of these immigrants are brought to life by using costumed actors, props and artifacts. Danny especially enjoyed their re-creation of the uncomfortable wagon rides! This was one of the highlights of our day and definitely worth a stop in beautiful Idaho!

Goodbye Beautiful Idaho, Welcome home Wyoming!

Just across the border from Idaho sits the little town of Kemmerer, Wyoming. Rich in coal mining history, the towns biggest claim to fame is that it is home to the original JC Penny store. This store is still open today. While we didn’t stop there this trip, we are definitely planning to stop in the next time we travel through this area.

One of the highlights of Tommy and Winston’s day was the huge dog park that we found in Kemmerer. It was a great opportunity for them to run and stretch their legs a bit. This was definitely a great stop on our way home.

Little America

The weather started to get pretty dicey, so we ended up stopping at Little America for the night. While known for being a hotel, resort and truck stop, they recently added an RV park to the property. We were relieved to be able to stop there for the night and get out of the weather.

Little America also has a pretty neat creation story. In the 1890’s, the founder of Little America, Stephen Mack Covey was a sheepherder on the high plains in Wyoming, near Granger. One night, Covey found himself stuck keeping sheep in a blizzard with temperatures that reached 40 below. Covey vowed to create an oasis in the area for travelers who might otherwise be stranded. In 1934, Covey fulfilled that promise by opening a motel, gas station and cafe in the same spot he had been stranded years before. He chose the name “Little America” based upon photos he saw of Admiral Byrd’s Little America in the Antarctic.

Today, there are eight Little America resorts across the country. They are well known for their 75 cent ice cream cones!

We were a bit sad to end this trip, and even more sad to finish our Idaho series of videos. To see more from our Idaho vacation, check out our other blog posts and videos. Stay tuned for our next series of videos about our Texas Solar Eclipse trip, and be on the lookout for our Traveling with Terriers merch store coming soon! As always, please don’t forget to hit the “Like” and “Subscribe” buttons on our YouTube channel. See you soon and happy travels!