June 15, 2006 - Pocatello to Boise
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| I left Pocatello around 10AM. That's the American Falls Reservoir and some cattle stock pens on my right. |
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I soon joined up with the Snake River. It was about right around here that the immigrants had to decide if they were going to Oregon or California. Those going to Oregon continued west on this (the south) side of the Snake River. Those going to California turned south down the Raft River Valley.
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| Striped fields. |
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The picture didn't come out very well but there were some pretty good ruts running from lower right to upper left.
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| A good shot of the Snake River gorge. Surprisingly, the immigrants had a tough time along the south side of the Snake. They could look down into the gorge and see the river but they could not get to it. |
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| Looking to the east. |
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| The Snake River looks pretty tame now but that's because it's been dammed up. Back in the day, with no dams, I'm guessing it was pretty wild. |
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Some pretty nice houses overlooking the river.
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A blurry shot of Twin Falls, Idaho.
I had a 15 mph headwind, but because I wasn't flying so high, and it wasn't hot, I was making 100 mph indicated airspeed, and 85 mph groundspeed.
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Yes, that's a golf course down in the gorge.
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| Yes, that's somebody's private grass strip airport and house down in the gorge! I wonder how he gets his car down there? |
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| Gradually, there terrain changed from farms to desert. |
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| It was impossible to tell if ruts in the desert were made from the Oregon Trail or Jeeps. |
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| Since there wasn't much civilization out here and the terrain was relatively flat, I descended and did some nape of the earth flying. |
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| That's Boise and the main Boise Airport to the north. |
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| I would be visiting my old high school buddy, Pete, who lives in Eagle, just west of Boise. I picked this airport, Nampa Municipal Airport (S67) -- elevation 2,537 feet -- because it was closest to Eagle. Nampa turned out to be the best general aviation I visited the entire trip. I liked it because it was just busy, with lots of planes, people in the terminal, and an on-field restaurant. |
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| I landed around 1PM and tied down next to that big Stearman. |
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| The terminal with a RV-7 parked out front. The restaurant is on the top-floor of the terminal. The Warhawk Air Museum is on the field also, but I didn't get a chance to visit it. |
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