12 May 2013; Hardship Decisions in the Desert --
Arising from our “laps of luxury” in a Super 8 motel in Ogden [no campgrounds -- that we knew of!] was a
relaxed process. Grumpy had checked with Google Maps for estimated distances
and driving times between Ogden UT and Fort Bale and discovered an unalterable
fact: Achieving Emigrant Springs campground by today, after stopping at the “Golden
Spike” and seeing Craters of the Moon would make a very lo-oo-ong day. The heck with “ …c’mon’, we’re a burnin’ daylight!!”; the Queen
Mother and Grumpy figured out that there were two ways to spend the rest of
this auto trip: 1.) Drive like the Devil for two days, or, 2.) Take it easy for three days and
enjoy the rest of the trip. The decision was an easy one.
It was a long “detour” off our main route to get to the
historic site of the Golden Spike at Promontory Point UT. On the way we encountered
“hysterical” markers announcing viewing points and/or side trails by which we
were able to see notable features of parts of the road-bed construction of the
two competing railroad companies who participated in this race to build a
transcontinental railroad across the U.S.
A major obstacle to the route both rail companies faced was
a large ravine across which the steep (~2%) grades of both had to surmount. The East
Coast company (Central Pacific) chose a huge earthen (rock) fill; the San
Francisco-based company (Union Pacific) elected to build a wooden trestle. Only
the earthen fill remains. Interestingly, Union Pacific ultimately won the
Federal Government’s coveted license to operate the entire trans-US rail line.
The old wooden trestle was so wobbly that one writer called the trestle the
most “rickety, dangerous, wobbly and unstable structure” in the world! After a few years,
Union Pacific negotiated permission from Central Pacific to use the “Big Fill”
and it was used until yet another route was built across the upper portion of
the Great Salt Lake, avoiding the steep grades over the Promontory mountains,
and greatly speeding up the trains and avoiding the high costs of additional
equipment and crews required to operate over these mountains in Utah. The rail
bed across Great Salt Lake is in use today.
On our walk along the historic rail bed leading to the "Big Fill", the boys encountered a medium-size rattlesnake. Grumpy "coaxed" the rattler to pose for several photos. [Grumpy was disappointed that he could not entice the rattler to assume an " ... if I told you once, I have now told you for the last time ..." coiled, ready-to-strike posture.]
The main point of this detour, however, was to see the actual Golden Spike where the two railroads eventually joined. [In typical government bureaucratic processes, the final site was determined by Congressional or Department of Commerce decision. The decision took so long to make that the two railroads were laid out, side by side, overlapping each other for 250 miles!]
As it turned out, we learned that there were four precious metal spikes; two of a Gold alloy (each of a different percentage); one of Silver alloy; and one of mostly Iron, Silver-clad with a Gold cap. The spikes were dropped into predrilled holes in a specially prepared California Laurelwood tie. 
Three of the original spikes are displayed in museums elsewhere; one of the Gold spikes has been lost to posterity. All four spike were replaced by regular iron spikes into a regulation Pine tie -- "The last tie laid on the completion of the Pacific Railroad" -- after the big ceremony. The Laurelwood tie was displayed in a museum in San Francisco, but was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake.
“Detouring” back to
I-15 to pass through Pocatello ID, we passed another “Devil’s” something or
other; this one was a large reservoir, named "Devil's Lake". It was now becoming mandatory that we
photograph each of these features named for Old Nick. There had been “Devil’s
Washbowl” in Malad Gorge; "Devil's Slide" out of Ogden; and soon, “Devil’s
Orchard” in Craters of the Moon;
A notable feature along our route to Craters of the Moon
that Grumpy had noted on the Google map of Idaho was “Lost River”. This is a
peculiar drainage in which the river “disappears” into the porous lava plain
over which it should flow, subsequently reappearing somewhere downstream. By
means of radio isotopes (or something similar) they have been able to verify
that the water in an upstream portion of this river is the same water that
reappears in a downstream channel. Where we crossed the “Big Lost River”, near
Arco ID, the river bed was dry, but the bottom showed signs of obvious recent
water flow (during or immediately following a significant rain-fall nearby or
upstream.) The boys “had to” fake swimming in the invisible water flowing in
this channel.
We arrived at Craters of the Moon at or after closing time for the Visitor Center. However, since we had determined that this would be our Campground for the night -- if camping were permitted (it was), we drove on around the loop road through the open portion of this National Monument.
The camp-sites here appeared to be forbidding: the soil is very black -- like charcoal -- and one would think that anything that touched it would be forever stained with the black stuff. However, Grumpy discovered that, although he walked across several feet of this surface to awaken GGson I (so he could see the brilliant display of midnight stars) Grumpy's white cotton socks bore no signs of having been in contact with the black stuff!
As mentioned earlier, there was "Devil's Orchard" which the boys and the Queen Mother walked through. When Grumpy asked one of the boys what he had seen, he said, "Lots of different plants and rocks."
Meantime, Grumpy spied this Limber Pine tree which appeared as though it had pushed up the large block of lava leaning against its trunk. [The pine tree evidently sprouted near this lava chunk and eventually grew in girth to be pushing against it.]
A couple of "Spatter Cones" were visited. The boys and their Queen Mother are shown as they were coming back from peeking into the open crater. Grumpy photographed another Spatter Cone that contained a sizeable quantity of snow in its crater (below right).
A good example of a chunk of spatter cone discharge is shown in this photo (left).
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