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Sunday at 5:30 AM.  Writing this journal entry in the morning while I lay in bed waiting for sunrise.  Yesterday we covered a lot of miles.  The best part of the day was when we passed a really cool place in Idaho where a river cut a gorge into the flat land: Malad Gorge State Park, a segment of Thousand Springs State Park.  We pulled off the Interstate to check it out more closely.  I’ll bet a lot of people drive right over this and never even notice.  (See the aerial photo of the park with the Interstate highway in the top right corner  )  It looks like a baby Grand Canyon.  It made for a nice hike around the rim and a good break.  Traveling this time of year is nice because the park was empty.  The Malad River flows into the Snake River, another great river for whitewater expeditions like we will have on the Colorado R.

Enjoying Malad Gorge State Park, Oregon

Malad Gorge, Oregon

Sign at Malad Gorge

Lots of sunshine as we drove across Idaho and into Utah.  Many miles of construction zones around Salt Lake City sure made for slow going.  We must have wasted at least an hour.  I’m learning to dislike Interstate driving.  We made it all the way down to Scipio, UT, in the center of the state.  Sleeping in the back of the truck again.  Nice and warm in the sleeping bag, but there is frost on the inside of the windows!  No surprise, we’re at about 5000′.  Today we will meet the rest of the group in Flagstaff.  Lots of cool things to see before we get there though.  Southern Utah has some amazing sights.  (Note: date stamp on Ariel’s camera got off by one day starting today.)

Don't be fooled by the posted speed limit. We were going about 15 mph around Salt Lake City.

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