Day 3: Oregon to Idaho

Continuing our quest for knowledge, we began our day at the Keeney Pass Interpretive Site.

Keeney Pass was named for the early western pioneer, Jonathan Keeney. In 1831, at the age of 19, Keeney left Missouri to explore the Rocky Mountains. He joined Jim Bridger of the American Fur Company and spent his life trapping and trading throughout the west. Thousands of emigrants on the Oregon Trail used this pass to reach the fertile farmlands that laid further west. The countryside of Keeney Pass has largely been unchanged since this time.

Managed by the Bureau of Land Management as an interpretive site, it offers a 2/3-mile round-trip hike along a section of the original Oregon Trail and visible wagon ruts near an interpretive shelter. Wayside exhibits tell the stories of the overland experience and the native peoples of the area.


A recent fire left evidence of its destruction while also exposing the swales that are the Oregon Trail.

We also stopped at Mile 1526.8 to visit John D. Henderson's Grave.
The bronze plaque reads, "Pioneer Grave of John D. Henderson. Died of Thirst, August 9, 1852, Unaware of Nearness of the Malheur River. Leaving Independence, Missouri, in May 1852, Mr. Henderson and Companion Name Unknown, Had Completed Only Part of the Journey When Their Team Died. They Were Compelled to Continue on Foot Carrying Their Few Possessions. The Twenty Miles of Desert Separating the Snake and Malheur Rivers Proved too Great a Struggle for the Weary Travelers."
The large stone below the plaque, has the original burial inscription carved upon it.

Our home for the night was Idaho's ookily named Massacre Rocks State Park. It received its name from a grouping of boulders that created a narrow break through which the Oregon and California Trails passed. Emigrants, fearing that American Indians might be waiting in ambush, named the boulders "Massacre Rocks." Skirmishes between emigrants and Shoshone Indians did occur in August 1862, but these took place east of the park. The state park still contains visible remnants of the Oregon and California Trails.
We lucked out by getting site #31 which overlooks the Snake River. Wow.

While the Visitor Center was closed when we rolled into camp, we were able to learn the local history by various informative plaques located about.
The Park features a dramatic landscape formed by ancient volcanic activity and reshaped roughly 14,500 years ago by the catastrophic Bonneville Flood, the second worse flood in the Earth's history.


These stone 'knobs' were intriguing and everywhere on this one hill we climbed. So dang geologically cool.

And just look at the view outside our dinette window! Winding for more than 1,000 miles, the Snake River originates in Wyoming, flowing north along the Idaho-Oregon border, eventually making its way into Washington, where it joins the Columbia River as its largest tributary.
“I choose to listen to the river for a while,
thinking river thoughts,
before joining the night and the stars.”
-Edward Abbey

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