Bears & Rocks

Day 16-Idaho

We have been told by many that we should visit Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg, so we decided to go since we were in town.  It’s a great opportunity to see bears up close, especially if you are close behind the special tour that allows people to feed the bears and they are begging by the truck and wandering around.  They have a rare white elk and cute little baby goats.

We visited Massacre Rocks State Park, which is named for an incident along the Oregon Trail where 10 white emigrants were killed by Native Americans.  There is a geology trail and we hiked that to see the rock formations and learn about the geologic history. Also in the park are some very well-preserved wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail and you can hike to see them.  We drove from the visitor center to a parking area by the interstate and then hiked quite a ways, went through two tunnels underneath the interstate to get to the other side and the ruts.  It’s a deep swale in the prairie that’s easy to see and interesting to think of all the wagons that traversed that area.

We drove a couple miles farther on to Register Rock, which is part of the same state park and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Many emigrants scratched their names into the rock for posterity and it’s now protected by a pavilion so that you can still view the signatures and dates.