I’m here – at the City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park – at the end of the pavement. I arrived here during a snow squall, it seemed perfect to me. I left home to live a different life for a month; snow the last day of April was a welcoming sign that life would be different here.  The area is a simple place where most livelihood is ranching. It is a place without distractions.  A place where one can make their life what they want it to be.

I’ve volunteered to give interpretive tours for the month of May; giving tours on geology and the emigrant story of the California Trail.  All signs indicate that it will be a good month.

Getting Here

My travel to get here was focused on putting miles behind me, not on absorbing and understanding the land. But I did manage one historical sight at the Birds of Prey located south of Boise – the Initial Point.  The Initial Point is the starting point for the first land survey of Idaho. It also made a nice place to spend the night.  It had a wonderful middle of nowhere feeling, but in reality it is about five miles from housing subdivisions. A few people came out to spend time at the site while I was there.

I also spent a night at the Priest Rapids Recreational Site by Desert Aire, Washington.  A nice basic home for the night with trails along the Columbia River.  But the layout was curious, and only a few sites could one use with a trailer.