We left beautiful Park City and the lovely Landmark Inn and got ready to tent for the next two days. We headed north toward Boise, Idaho. We didn't want to spend a night in Boise but try someplace new. Boise had always been our mid stop between Salt Lake and Hood River for ten summers when we lived in Salt Lake City. So we checked the map and found Bruneau Dunes State Park. It has an observatory to check the heavens. There are high dunes and lakes in the park as well. So we drove happily listening to mountain music provided by the group we heard in Park City called The Milk Drive. Their CD was Road from Home. They played original songs accompanied by guitar and fiddle. This was perfect music heading to the dunes.
There are two ways to get to the dunes off I86, through Hemmet or Mountain Home. We were closed to Hemmet so we drove into this hamlet and talked to some of the locals. They gave directions and we went on our way. We drove, and drove, and drove around finally getting close to what looked like dunes. Then suddenly, there it was: a lovely campsite with bathrooms, showers and lovely cottonwood trees. We drove around the campground and found our side with our name on it. So we decided to set up camp and then explore the area. On a trip to the bathroom I ran into another camper who had also just arrived. Betty was from Boston. She and her husband had flown into Flagstaff, Arizona. They requested a four wheel drive Jeep at the rental car service and after some delay managed to get their all- terrain vehicle. Craig, her husband, was into searching for turquoise stone. He had research where he could find the rock throughout the west as many Native Americans have for centuries. They were teachers: he a history professor and she a fourth grade teacher. Their two daughters left home after college and now here they were the two of them going on adventures during their summer vacation. They looked for out of the way to camp and they found the Dunes to their liking. They went off to get their camp ready and we went off to check out the observatory.
Here in the middle of nowhere there was an observatory to study the heavens. Since today was Monday, it was not opened. On Fridays and Saturdays there is a class to learn how to find the constellations and a chance to view through the telescope. There was also a curriculum to study animal tracks. On a paved circle several samples of animal tacks were made and a sign ask to identify them. We had fun checking these out and discovered that in this seemingly desolate place there indeed was a great deal of animal life. We then went on to the pier to see if any fish were biting. We saw two people we fishing and thought both were men until we started taking to them. The lady was much bigger than the man and was the one that answered all the questions. They didn't seem very friendly when we asked them about all sorts of fishing questions. Maybe it was because they had spent all day and hadn't caught anything big enough to keep or maybe because the man-eating mosquitos were attacking. We decided to leave them and go hike to the Dunes.
The sun was getting low in the sky so we jogged to the Dunes in order to see the sun set from the top. There were a string of people at the top sitting, talking, laughing and having a good time. We saw the only way to get there was to begin walking up the soft sand. It was so soft that you took one step and sunk into the soft sand. So it took some good arduous strides to make it to the top. There we were greeted by some young people from the near- by city of Mountain Home. They were on summer vacation and decided to reunite at the Dunes where they frequently used to gather when they were in school before going away to college or other ventures. Several of them were home schooled and came to the observatory for projects. They also used the internet to take classes on line. I guess they were pretty much like many students today that are finding a way to get educated without the need for formal school. Some of them made the comment that they would have had to travel a long way to get to school in pretty in climate weather and it was easier to get the curriculum and research it at home via the internet. I found this information most interesting in the way the World Wide Web was changing things. Take Wikipedia for instance, a few years ago my IB students could not use it as a reference but this year, the International Baccalaureate Committee approved it because it is the most up to date encyclopedia around. All you have to do is to look at the Work Book 2000 edition and it will tell you Pluto is a planet which everyone now knows that we no longer have 9 planets in our solar system but 8! So here you have it!
The sun set was spectacular and as the sun went down it became suddenly chilly. We all decided to scramble down the dunes at once and it was great fun trying to get down as fast as possible as our feet sunk deep into the sand. We didn't stop at the bottom but continued to run as the man-eating mosquitos were waiting for us as a Thanksgiving Day Feast! The kids quickly got into their cars and sped off waving good-bye. We got to our tent and zipped it shut still hearing the buzzing all about and since we did not put our rain cover on we could see them buzzing above. Soon, however, night came and we were in awe at the beauty of the stars above. We identified the big dipper and the northern star. The night was so bright without any of the city lights that you could almost see the strands of the Milky Way. I put on Louis Holtz, Planets on my IPOD speakers, and we lay in bed listening to this outstanding piece of music as we watched the twinkling of thousands of stars.
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