A New Place and Places.

Cathy and I moved from the Elks RV Park in Rupert to our new location, 35 miles away at Lake Murtaugh. Cathy found this little hidden gem and we drove here earlier in the week to verify it. It is a nice park on an irrigation reservoir. The only thing it lacks are sewer hookups or a dump station. We have water and electricity - and lots of quiet!

Our rigs as seen from the bulrushes. The threatening skies never produced a storm.

This is the place we will call home for the next two weeks until I head back to La Grande, OR, for a couple of days. We settled in yesterday and used today to do some exploring in the immediate area. Let's see, we arranged for general delivery at the Post Office in Mutaugh. We found the Snake River north of town. I loaded up some Geocaches that seemed interesting and we headed out to find them.

 The Snake River 

The renovated Stricker home and our picnic site.

 One of the caches led us to an old trading post and home site on the Oregon Trail. The Stricker Heritage Site was once a stage stop, wagon rest stop, and a trading post. Some of the original buildings from the Oregon Trail era still exist. I read where some of the basalt rocks in the area are worn smooth from all the historic travel.

The Trading Post.

Root Cellar.

About a quarter of a mile from the home site is a pioneer cemetery. It was strange to walk up on a cemetery in the middle of an alfalfa field. Only seven people were buried in it.

Coming up onto the cemetery.

The graves still have the wooden markers. It's hard to say if they were the original markers, though.

The gift shop and interpretive center was closed. There was a flier on the door that advertised a fish fry this coming Saturday. Cathy and I just might do that!

From the Stricker site we headed to what we thought would be an interesting place; The Old Hermits Home. In the 1960's a loner type with mining experience built himself a home in the ground. The current property owner, and relative, offered the site as a unique Geocaching experience. 

 A lonely little valley in the rolling hills. The cave dwelling is in the lighter colored area.

Boy was it ever! I forgot to bring a flashlight so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the interior. I did use the strobe on my camera as a way to illuminate enough for us to get an idea of the home. It seems really neat and entirely livable. The door is long gone, but you can see the door frame and hinges still there.

The entry.

A very interesting spot in a little valley along a hillside. The dwelling is carved into an outcropping of some sort of chalky conglomerate among the old basalt lava beds. We are among the lucky few who know of this spot.

We ended our day with a nap and hamburgers on the grill. It looks like I have been challenged to a round of Mexican Dominoes. Wish me luck!