Bear Lake

I enjoyed getting off the freeway in southern Idaho, since I've done the direct route from Seattle to SLC many times at many hours of the day.  But it was a reminder that the mountain ranges all go north and south and that to go east or west, you inevitably zigzag, whether you are a covered wagon or 21st century Subaru.



After City of Rocks, I drove north again, reconnecting with the Interstate system for a few tens of miles - getting on the freeway was thwarted for 15 minutes while a herd of cattle was shepherded across an overpass.  Red Rock Pass is where Lake Bonneville overflowed into the Snake River system during the waning ice age and it is where Great Salt Lake (the leftover part of Lake B) would flow out of the Great Basin if it rained really hard for a few hundred years.

Bear Lake straddles the Idaho - Utah border, just east of their mutual border with Wyoming.  It drains into the Great Salt Lake and therefore is within the Great Basin - its waters are destined to evaporate without ever reaching the ocean.