2013 Idaho--Harriman State Park

Bend in the Henry's Fork of the Snake River at Harriman State Park, Idaho.

We have some friends that spend a great deal of time at Harriman State Park in Island Park, Idaho.  Until yesterday I had never been.  I had driven past the park my whole life (it used to be called the Railroad Ranch and wasn't created as a state park until 1977), but had never stopped.  When I was a kid, we were always in too big of a hurry, either going to the valley for school or going to West Yellowstone for the Playmill.  Since we moved back to the area, we were always going past it to get to Yellowstone.  Always, we said, "Someday we need to see what Harriman State Park is all about."  We have been talking about going there for several weeks and finally we decided that yesterday was someday.

I had a meeting up on campus until the early afternoon so that kind of negated a long trip so Yellowstone was out.  We decided we could check out Harriman since it is only about 45 minutes away.  We invited one of Garrett's friends to go with us, picked up some chicken and some snacks for a picnic and headed up to Harriman State Park.

The Harriman family were railroad barons during the industrial revolution.  They had their hand in developing the Union Pacific Railroad that serviced the west.  They also acquired quite a bit of land as a result, and created the Railroad Ranch as a vacation home.  The ranch was a working ranch, but in reality it was a hobby ranch for the family.

W Averell  Harriman was responsible for the creation of Sun Valley Resort in central Idaho, and he and his brother Roland donated the Railroad Ranch to the state of Idaho with the understanding that it would become a state park and a wildlife refuge.  The Harriman's had already begun work restoring the elk herd to Island Park and also working to attract other wildlife to the area.

Today, the park has about 16,000 acres and twenty miles of trails.  It boasts the largest flock of trumpeter swans in the world and is home to a large population of sandhill cranes.  In addition, hundreds of other bird species call Harriman State Park home.  Dozens of mammals also frequent the park.  We forgot our insect repellent and learned that billions of mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers also inhabit the park.  That is not enough to keep us away, rather we'll remember to bring the essentials next time.

We only walked along about ten percent of the trails yesterday, or rather two miles.  We took the Ranch Loop and headed back along the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  Really we were trying to get a feel for the park and decide if we wanted to spend more time there in the future.  We decided we do.  We started the afternoon with a picnic and then took a short walk around the picnic area through an interpretive trail talking about the park and it's unique geology/ecology.

Chimene and the boys at the picnic.  Those aren't beer bottles, it's gourmet cream soda in brown bottles.  It's better that way

What the interpretive trail looked like.  There were about a half dozen of these kiosks along the trail.

Island in the bend of the Henry's Fork of the Snake River along the interpretive trail

The Ranch Loop Trail begins at the picnic area (most of the trails do) and heads through the main thoroughfare of the ranch.  About thirty of the old ranch buildings still stand and many of them contain shops during business hours and others can be rented for overnight accommodations.  Each of them had a sign telling the year the building was built and it's original purpose.  After that, the trail wound it's way along the river into the wilder areas of the park.

The trails were well marked along the way and there was a sign at each intersection with a map that showed where you were and where each fork in the trail went.  If you pay attention it should be virtually impossible to get lost at Harriman State Park.  We had decided earlier that we would do the Ranch Loop Trail because is was short and there was a good chance to see some wildlife along it.

We saw dozens of trumpeter swans in the distance and as the trail skirted the river we saw another nesting pair fairly close up.  Shortly after that, the trail cut over to Silver Lake and we went along the east shore trail.  We saw a family of swans along that part of the trail and I did spot and photograph a Parry's Mountain Gentian.  There weren't a lot of wildflowers in bloom on this trip.  I think if we had wanted to see the wildflowers here we would have needed to come in June or the first part of July.  We'll note that for next year.

We also learned that if we want to do a lot of bird watching or photographing we need a bigger lens for our camera.  It would be almost impossible to get close enough with the current lens to get any really good close pictures of the birds.  It's also best to see the birds and other animals early or late in the day.  There are a couple of yurts in the park that can be rented for $55.00 an evening and can sleep six.  We want to do that so we can rise with the sun and see the wildlife and photograph them.



Main thoroughfare of the historic ranch 

One of the ranch buildings

More of the ranch buildings



Ironic that the Railroad Ranch would have fenceposts made of railroad ties

The boys on the trail

Nesting trumpeter swans along the Henry's Fork

I just liked this picture

Second best picture of the day

Best picture of the day

Swan family.  This is why I need a bigger lens

Parry's Mountain Gentian

The last part of the Silver Lake Trail was closed because of deadfalls blocking the path, so we headed over to the river trail to make our way back to the parking area.  It was a beautiful mountain lake, idyllic even.  The trail along the river is where we encountered the irritating flies, chiggers and mosquitos.  With proper repellant it should not be an issue.  The trails we took were very scenic and there was something to see around every bend.  Chimene and I saw a sandhill crane fairly close up, but it flew away before the boys caught up to us.  They are very large birds.  They can stand between four and five feet tall with a six to seven foot wingspan.  Big birds.  It wouldn't hold still long enough for a photo, and even then I didn't have a big enough lens.  Christmas list...hint.

The Hot Chick on the trail

The old forest sentinel.  Just what I called it

An ancient ox-bow lake on the way to becoming a marsh

What the trail looked like for much of the way.  Shaded, serene, peaceful.

The trail along the river.  The mosquitos were really bad right here.

Another view of the river

When we got back to the car, we drove around the rest of the park for awhile, located the yurts because we wish to spend a night there in the future, and then took off across the dirt roads in the back of the park and connected to Antelope Flats Road.  When we got back to the highway, I drove back to Harriman to go walk across the Osborne Bridge.  Scratch another item off the bucket list.  The Osborne Bridge is an old railroad bridge that is one of my childhood landmarks for the road to Yellowstone.

The Osborne Bridge

River weeds around a rock in the river near the bridge

Sunset over the Henry's Fork from the bridge

On the bridge

The boys and me on the Osborne Bridge

One of the concrete pylons in the river, supporting the bridge.

When we drove out, we went past Swan Lake and there were several cars stopped.  I didn't think much of it until I noticed that they were Idaho and Montana cars.  Idahoans and Montanans don't stop for just anything because it's all around us here.  Then my sons shouted, "There's a moose!"  Sure enough there was a moose out in Swan Lake.  We stopped for a photo-shoot, of course.  Rhys and Garrett were more excited that they saw the moose before I did than they were at actually seeing a moose.

The moose at Swan Lake

More of the moose

Another picture of the moose.  A big lens would have been really good here

Sunset over Swan Lake

This was a worthwhile trip.  We want to spend a lot more time at Harriman to see what the other 90% of the park looks like.  If it is anything like the 10% we saw it will be time well spent.  We had a great time as a family and friends.  We'll go back here.

2013--St. Anthony, Idaho: River Walk

The Henry's Fork of the Snake River

St. Anthony, Idaho is just thirteen miles from our home.  For several years we have noticed a riverwalk as we have driven by.  We have said, "Someday we will go there."  Last Monday, for Family Night, was someday.

Our two oldest girls are grown and live away, our oldest son is on a mission for our church in Arizona and our next boy is working at a scout camp in the Tetons.  That left the Hot Chick and I and our two youngest sons to hike the mile and a half (or thereabouts) trail along the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  With the four older kids out of the house, our home has gotten a lot quieter.  When the two younger boys are off playing with their friends, it almost seems like we are empty nesters.  I think this is the early training for that.  Good thing the Hot Chick and I like each other.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we took the riverwalk.  I knew it was a paved trail and I knew that a friend of mine from St. Anthony who is a mountain man aficionado, raised money for a bronze statue of the mountain man Major Andrew Henry that so many things around here are named after.  I knew it had a paved trail, and that at one time it had been a bird refuge for the Great Blue Heron, but really I knew nothing more than that.

At first I was a little disappointed with the lack of interpretive materials along the trail, but I soon overcame the disappointment and began interpreting the landscape for myself.

The trail goes over exposed bedrock which is a thick basalt flow which has at one time or another been scoured by the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  The trail skirts across an ancient river bed along side the newer, deeper channel currently being cut. 

The trail is a collection of opposites.  On one side is a sagebrush steppe and on the other is the river and everything that goes along with it.  It was interesting to see wetland plants such as cattails, willows and cottonwoods juxtaposed with their desert cousins, juniper, sagebrush and rabbitbrush.

We were about a month too late for a lot of wildflowers, but there were a few scattered along the trail.  I found one that was really interesting.  It had small, very bright purple flowers with five spear shaped petals that turned back on themselves and a bright yellow cone shaped stamen in the middle of each bloom.  I thought they were pretty and took several pictures of them and when I returned home I researched them for identification.  Turns out for a guy who likes Hallowe'en as much as I do, I had stumbled upon Deadly Nightshade!  Awesome.

Enough talk.  Let's see the pictures!

River Shots

The Henry's Fork of the Snake River

Another view of the Henry's Fork

Idyllic little fork of the river

The boys at the river

The Hot Chick at the river

Not sure if this is a mini-waterfall or rapids.  Cool though.

I thought this was pretty

Every now and then the trail breaks out on a peaceful view of the river

Late afternoon

One of the last shots of the day

Steppe Shots

The sagebrush steppe which is typical terrain for the Snake River Plain in Idaho

Juxtaposition of river plants and steppe plants

The Hot Chick and the boys on one of the park benches along the trail

Basalt scoured by the river in an ancient river bed

Lichen on a boulder.  The building blocks of the great soil in the upper valley

More lichen

Lichen and moss

Along the trail are several wetland, marshy areas nestled in the steppe.  An oasis of sorts

Another oasis

And another oasis

Major Andrew Henry

Major Andrew Henry

Me and the Hot Chick at the base of the sculpture

Major Andrew Henry

The Flora

Common Arrowhead, Sagittaria latifolia

More Common Arrowhead.  I discovered this adjacent to the river.  Some were growing to the side of the river and some were growing in the water.

The Hot Chick and the boys next to cattails taller than they are

Gnarly cottonwood bark

I have no idea what this is, but it was cool.  I'll identify it later

Scottish Thistle was abundant

No idea what this is either.  I'll identify it at a later date

Idyllic scene on a side trail along the river

Deadly Nightshade!

Broken robin egg

Ruined nest next to the egg

Small cacti was everywhere.  I don't believe this was prickly pear, however because the shapes were wrong.  If we had come two or three weeks earlier, we would have seen all the cacti in bloom.  Mark that for next year.

Leaflets three,
Poisonous tree.
Berries white,
Poisonous sight

Rabbitbrush

Pretty purple flowers.  Might be lavender

Stray wheat at the end of the trail

This was an enjoyable little walk.  The trail is intended as a walking path for people to exercise more than an interpretive trail.  It was beautiful in it's own right though.  Next year I'd like to visit at the end of June or beginning of July to see the wildflowers and particularly the cacti in bloom.

Time spent being a family, though is always worthwhile.