Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Crossing Southern Idaho


Although we've been to all of the states we're traveling through on this
trip, we're visiting different parts that we haven't seen before. This
includes southern Idaho. Yes, not a lot to see in southern Idaho, but
the terrain was rolling, dry and generally a lot like home.


One thing that is interesting about this part of the state is that it
was once under water. What? Under water? There's not enough water
in most areas here to make a sponge wet. However, 20,000 years ago,
during the last Ice Age, this entire area, as well as large parts of Utah
and Nevada (now the Great Basin area) was covered by Lake Bonneville.
This was a huge lake. Unfortunately, there weren't enough rivers
entering the lake and it eventually dried up. It's impressive though to
think that even as big as the Great Salt Lake is today, it's just a tiny
remnant of it's former self. It was once almost as large as Lake Michigan
and significantly deeper. To this day, one can see the signs of ancient
shorelines high up on the sides of nearby mountains.

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