Wednesday July 31st, a couple of days before we left Star Valley we visited Periodic Spring in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Afton, Utah.
What the heck is a "Periodic Spring". Located 4 miles east of Afton in the Salt River Range it is the largest of three natural springs in the world that naturally turn off and on. Water flow is interrupted from anywhere between 3 to 30 minutes, generally between the months of August - May. It is thought that a cave behind the spring creates a siphon which causes interruptions of the water flow. Its ability to turn off and on during low discharge stages has fascinated visitors since prehistoric times. Access to the spring is via the swift creek road and requires a 3/4 mile hike by trail through the very scenic Swift Creek Canyon.
This is the gravel road up the canyon.
This is the trail we hiked up.
You can see the stream running from the mountain down to Swift Creek. The short steep (I mean STEEP) path runs along the side of the stream leaving the spring.
There were people on the other side of Swift Creek where the spring is located but we could not figure out how to get over there. It looked like we were at the end of the path and had to ford the Creek. Bev was brave and walked into the creek but before she got across we saw some people coming through the bushes and ask them how they got across. They told us there was a bridge a little further up. Great, so Bev, with her soaked shoes, and I continued through the brush to a tiny path that led to the bridge.
We felt like mountain goats trying to climb the path. It was so steep and slippery from the loose gravel that we didn't make it to the top to actually see the spring. (I will just have to believe them when they say it turns off and on.) I guess I could have worked at it harder but there was a Thunder Storm off in the distance and it looked like it was heading our way. I didn't want to get caught on the top of that steep path during a storm. As it turned out the storm by-pass us, oh well.
It is the end of July and there is still snow up here. That's a pretty good chunk of ice Bev is hanging on to.
As we drove up the gravel road I wondered why there was a pipe along side the road.
I found out that they were grabbing the water from Swift creek to run two Hydroelectric Plants.
The water ends up being dumped back into Swift Creek.
The Swift Creek Hydroelectric project reconstructed, upgraded and restored the operation of two abandoned hydro plants. The project was a cooperative effort between the Town of Afton and regional utility Lower Valley Energy.
Here is a view of the new generator.
That was it for our drive/hike up the Swift Creek Canyon to Periodic Spring. Bev's shoes are almost dry by now.
Thursday the day before our departure we just relaxed around the campground getting rested up for our trip.
Friday August 2nd we departed Star Valley Ranch for our new home in Utah. A short way from our campground we crossed into Idaho and followed Highway 34 West through some of the most beautiful country.
This is the sign we saw as we crossed Cariboo Mountain.
Soda Springs, Idaho is located in the mile-high Bear River Valley, 50 miles north of the Utah boarder and 30 miles west of the Wyoming state line.
Native Americans once called the Bear River Valley "tosoiba" which means "the land of sparkling waters." Early explorers and trappers visited the valley to drink water from the effervescing soda springs for which the city was named.
While farming and ranching are still important industries, Soda Springs' dominate economic industries are now open pit phosphate mining and manufacturing the ore into elemental phosphorus and commercial fertilizers. The Monsanto Company produces elemental phosphorus used in producing soft drinks, toothpaste, baking and leavening agents, water treatment chemicals, insecticides and herbicides. Agrium manufactures a variety of commercial fertilizers, most of which are phosphate based.
In Soda Springs we picked up U.S. Highway 30 West towards I-15
It is so much more interesting driving on state and U.S. Highways but we finally came to I-15 so we followed it South to Camperworld Hot Springs Resort, Garland, Utah. Garland is only a few miles South of the Idaho line. We settled in to a great site with a great view. We will be here for two weeks.
This is a Historical Marker located at the campground.
We relaxed around the campground for a couple of days only going out to Walmart in Logan, UT to pick up supplies and of course beer.
Sunday August 4th we were back at it again, we visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site.
No sooner were America's first railroads operating in the 1830s than people of vision foresaw transcontinental travel by rail. By the beginning of the Civil War, America's eastern states were linked by 31,000 miles of rail, more than in all of Europe. Virtually none of this network, though, served the area beyond the Missouri River.
By 1862 a young engineer, Theodore Judah, had surveyed a route over the Sierra Nevada and persuaded wealthy Sacramento merchants to form the Central Pacific Railroad. That year Congress Authorized Central Pacific to build a railroad eastward from Sacramento and in the same act chartered the Union Pacific Railroad.
Central Pacific broke ground in January 1863 and Union Pacific that December, but neither made much headway while the country's attention was diverted by the Civil War, the army had first priority on labor and materials. Once labor and supplies were freed at wars end they pushed ahead.
By mid 1868 Central Pacific crews had crossed the Sierra and laid 200 miles of track; Union Pacific had laid 700 miles over the plains. As the two work forces neared each other in Utah, they raced to grade more miles and claim more land subsidies. Both pushed so far beyond their railheads that they passed each other, and for over 200 miles competing graders advanced in opposite directions on parallel grades.
Congress finally declared the meeting place to be Promontory Summit. On May 10, 1869, two locomotives - Central Pacific's Jupiter and Union Pacific's No. 119 - pulled up to the one-rail gap left in the track. After a golden spike was symbolically tapped, a final iron spike was driven to connect the railroads.
Here are the replicas of Jupiter and No. 119. The originals have been scrapped long ago.
The trains are wood fired and we could smell the wood burning while we were checking them out. They keep them fired up because a couple of times a day they run the trains. They back both trains up and pull them back up to the spike location like they originally did. We just missed the trains running when we got there and didn't want to wait for the next running which was in another 3 hours.
The Golden Spike was removed right after it was tapped in and replaced by a final iron spike. This is the replica tie that was placed on the site of the Golden Spike.
Here is a replica of the original Golden Spike. As the sign says the original golden spike is at Stanford University in the art museum.
The sign also says that this replica was part of the Official flight Kit aboard Orbiter Atlantis during Space Shuttle Mission STS-38, November 15 - 20, 1990. By this gesture, the ribbons of iron that spanned America's first Frontier are united with the ribbons of fire that are spanning America's final frontier.
This is a view of the visitor center from the trains.
The transcontinental railroad also aided communications from coast to coast. They ran telegraph lines along the tracks.
I covered a lot in this blog but now I don't feel like I'm behind the 8 ball. I like to complete the blogs in a timely manner so I don't forget where we were and what we've seen.
Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them.
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