Our Yellowstone stay ended and we were ready to get going to the next place on our trip. We were able to get out o0f our campsite easier because the site on the other side of the road was empty. Our original plan was to leave Yellowstone and go to Twin Falls, ID. The Twin Falls area had three elements of the National Park (NPS) and a place to view parachutists jumping off the Perrine Bridge. The NPS units are: City of Rocks N Res.; Hagerman Fossil Beds NM and Craters of the Moon NM. In Yellowstone we met a camper who lives in the Twin Falls area and he mentioned the temperatures in the Twin Falls area were expected to be over 100º. After speaking with them, we decided to forego that leg of our trip and proceed to Green River.

Our first night we stayed in Pocatello, ID. The second and third nights we stayed in the Crystal Hot Spring (UT) campground for the other two nights. This campground was a delight. We camped in the shade at the edge adjoining a farm field. You could practically hear the crops growing. We took advantage of the hot springs as well. Nice surprise.

Our route took us on I-25 south to Spanish Fork and then Route 6 to Green River. The entire section of I 25 section of the trip took us through Salt Lake City and its suburbs on both the north side and the south side, a distance of about 100 miles, of city type driving. The trip leg from Spanish Fork to Green River was good road but through some very desolate terrain. We arrived in Green River about 2pm and found out state park campground The campground was very nice, not crowded. Each site was under a canopy of very large mature Cottonwood trees. A corner of the park was on the bank of the Green River.

The town of Green River provided us with a couple of surprises. Our only planned activity for this stop was to go to another state park, about 50 miles away named Goblins State Park. The park is situated in the same type of barren terrain we saw coming to Green River. The “Goblins” were piles of rock similar to eroded dirt piles of different sizes and shapes, resembling small people from Star Wars and the Hobbit.

The first and most enjoyable surprise was that different types of melons were grown in the irrigated lands adjacent to the river. These fresh picked melons were by far the best we have ever eaten. We had melons every day we were there. We discovered a melon called a Crenshaw. Many of you probably knopw of a Crenshaw melon, but my sheltered life never introduced me to it. It was so very juicy and sweet.. I sit here in Tucson writing this and want to go to the store and find one. Too bad for me.

The second surprise was “finding” the J W Powell River Museum. The museum is dedicated first, to John Wesley Powell and his exploits on the Green and Colorado Rivers. The other part of the museum is dedicated to various “river runners” over the years. The life of John Wesley Powell is traced from his loss of his arm in the Civil War through his trips, by boat, down the Colorado River. After attending college for a couple of years, he joined the Union Army, became a majot, and lost his right arm in the battle of Shiloh. “Wes’ was a self-taught geologist, botanist, surveyor, naturalist, historian and ethnologist.

We are now ready to start home to Tucson.