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Day 38: Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
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Day 38 - Leaving Jerome/Twin Falls, Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and Temp. Visitor Center for Minidoka National Monument, Golden Spike National Historical Site, Antelope Island State Park, UT - July 28, 2008 - Monday
It was easy to pack up today. Just sleeping bags. We headed West a little to Hagerman Fossil Beds NM. This monument protects an area that has rich fossil deposits. Once an ancient lake, the layers of sediment have preserved fossils of the Hagerman Horse, a close relative of the modern day Zebra. The Hagerman Visitor Center is also the temporary Visitor Center for Minidoka National Monument. Minidoka was once used as an internment camp for many Japanese and Japanese-Americans during WWII.
After the visitor centers we drove into the Hagerman Monument a little and stopped at a few overlooks hoping to see eagles and Oregon Trail wagon ruts, but no luck. We found out later that the wagons ruts would have eroded and what we would see would look like gullies that were created from the oxen pulling the carts in the soft soil.
We decided not to stop at City of Rocks National Monument and drove on South to Utah. We happened upon the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah, where the transcontinental railroad was finally finished. It was cool. We saw an exhibition of one of the steam engines, a replica of the original.
Afterward, we drove on to Antelope Island State Park and camped. We had dinner and walked down to the lake - walked in. The lake is very low now and we walked out quite a ways to get up to our knees.
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