Alaska – Canada Travels 2014, Shoshone Ice Cave and Idaho Mammoth Cave and Bird Museum, Idaho, September 20th to 22nd.

From Stanley we take Highway 75 south though the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and find a great little boon dock site along the Salmon River at Hell Roaring Creek.

The view from our campsite along the Salmon River.

The Hell Roaring Creek Trail goes into the Sawtooth Mountains and gives us an opportunity for a 7.5 mile hike. It was a beautiful afternoon and the sun ignites the fall colors on the forest floor. Fall is here and we get the urge to keep heading south. There’s already been some snow in the mountains.

Hell Roaring Creek Trail goes into the Sawtooth Mountains.

The afternoon sun ignites the fall colors on the forest floor.

Fall aspens on the way up to Galena Summit.

At Galena Summit with the Sawtooth Mountains in the background.

Going south on Highway 75 we cross over Galena Summit and down the Big Wood River to Ketchum and Sun Valley. This area reminds us of Vail or Steamboat Springs with a ski basin and mansions; a playground for the rich.

The Wood River Trail between Ketchum and Bellevue.

We find the Wood River Trail, a paved bike path between Ketchum and Bellevue and, never missing an opportunity, we stop for a 40-mile afternoon ride.

As we continue south the mountains give way to plains and we enter grass covered lava fields. There are two roadside attractions along Highway 75 that we want to see.

The lava fields along Highway 75.

The first attraction is the Shoshone Ice Cave and we go on a guided tour into a lava tube ice locker. The cave opening was very small which keeps water in the lava tube frozen. When the opening was enlarged enough to admit people they had to construct a doorway to constrict the air flow and prevent the cave from warming and the ice melting.

We follow our guide to the Ice Cave entrance.

Our guide talks about the dynamics of the ice cave before we enter through the door.

Following the board walk down into the dark.

The ice on the floor of the tube is about 20 ft. thick. A wood boardwalk is suspended above the ice and small bulbs dimly illuminate our passage. It’s cold, spooky and lots of fun.

we walk on a board walk suspended over 20 feet of ice that fills the tube.

Lights guide our way through the passage.

An ancient cave bear took shelter in this cave long ago.

The next attraction on down the road is Idaho Mammoth Cave and Idaho Bird Museum. We are greeted by stony faces at the entrance. It shouldn't come as a surprise that this is going to be a unique place.

Smiling stone faces greet us at the entrance to Mammoth Cave and the Idaho Bird Museum.

Stone faces stand like Easter Island monoliths at the museum entrance.

The entrance to Mammoth Cave and the Idaho Bird Museum.

After about a 7-mile drive down a gravel road we come to the museum and are greeted again by stony faces like miniature Easter Island monoliths. Each face is carved from a lava boulder. The young man we meet inside tells us that Mr. Olsen, his father, liked to carve and this is his hobby.

The light from the entrance diminishes as we walk further into the lava tube.

We pay our entry fee and the young man lights kerosene lanterns and directs us to the trail to the lava tube. It’s the end of the tourist season so we’re the only people here this morning and we have the cave to ourselves.

We descend into the darkness.

We descend the path into darkness. Soon the dark absorbs the daylight and the entrance becomes a point of light then vanishes as we follow the tube. The soft lantern light shines warmly on the cave walls and as our eyes become accustom to the dark we can see the texture of the lava on walls and ceiling. The tube is a quarter mile long and the ceiling is 50 ft. high at its highest point.

I stop to take a picture of Jim.

When I stop to take pictures Jim keeps walking and I watch his lantern light diminish and disappear around the bend. My lantern and I are alone in the dark. It’s a beautiful and mysterious experience being in this dark passage without sound from the world above, no motion of air, no echo of voices. I stand for a few moments more in this silent place, my little lantern on the ground beside me. There must be hundreds of places like this beneath the lava field that don’t have openings and will never see the light of day.

Jim walks on . . .

. . . and his lantern light disappears around a bend in the tube.

I linger for a moment alone with just my little lantern and and a complete silence.

The tube goes on for who knows how far but this is our turnaround point.
Hope there's none of those murderers and moonshiners back there.

I catch up with Jim and we walk on to the end. The tube goes further but a sign says this is our turn around point and we retrace the path to the entrance. Back on the surface again we meet folks going in with their lanterns aglow.

The museum is made of stacked volcanic rock with a copper plate roof that looks like scales.

Stacked basalt rock make up the museums circular building.

The circular stone building houses the Idaho Bird Museum. The building is made of stacked basalt rock with a roof of copper plates that look like dragon scales. It belongs in this landscape.

Mr Olsen was a taxidermist and has a remarkable collection wildlife mounts of animals from all over the world.

Mr. Olsen was a taxidermist and the museum has mounts of all kinds of birds, mostly water fowl and some bird of prey that are tagged and registered. There is also quite a collection of mammals from the Americas and Africa.

The museum is more than animal mounts. There are some remarkable treasures here.

The museum is more than just wildlife mounts. It has the most unique collection of all kinds of things from around the world and you could spend hours looking through it.

Cases and cases of interesting artifacts.

If you ever pass this way let these roadside attractions lure you in.

Our next stop is Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is going to be good.

See you down the road.

Jackie

A mushroom growing from a tree at one of our camp sites.