We woke up early (because the sun comes up at like 4, bleh) and kind of took our time getting around. When we finally got back on the road, we tried to come up with a plan as we drove.
The day had previously been set aside for Yellowstone, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. I mean, no way we're driving an hour back to the park, then two hours through the park, only to turn around and drive it all again. That's way too much backtracking to be worth our time. So finding ourselves with what was essentially a "bonus" day, we decided to take our time, and pull off to see whatever roadside attraction we came across.
So an hour or so in when we saw a sign advertising some sand dunes, we were like, "Dude yes. Let's play in the sand."
It ended up being quite a ways off the main road, but eventually we made it to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes.
Kind of a weird place for huge piles of sand if you ask me, but they were certainly pretty.
All along the road widing through the dunes there were a bunch of signs saying "No Parking on Shoulder". We saw one at least every half mile.
All around there were pickups with trailers pulled off to the sides of the road and people unloading dirt bikes and dune buggies. After all, when you live near some giant sand hills, what else would you want to spend your weekends doing?
So when we finally made it to somewhere near the center of the dunes, where there seemed to be a spot to pull of, I decided that's where we'd park. There was a pickup truck some ways in, and a minivan beside it not unlike our own.
The first hundred feet or so of the little driveway/parking lot area was sand marked back and forth with tire tracks, but just beyond that the ground leveled out and became rocky and much more solid looking. Thinking that there was definately a chance of getting stuck, but hoping for the best, I turned in.
Well, the sand was very sandy, and the rocks were very rocky, and Olga didn't like the sand. As soon as I made it through the sandy part and onto solid ground, I knew turning in had been a bad idea. I should have followed everyone else's example in ignoring the signs, and just parked along the shoulder.
I turned us around, dogded a few larger bolders, and gunned it to get back across the sand and onto the road.
Olga tried. She did her best. But that sand was just too sandy. So now we're stuck, and there's a rock wedged under the frame that we slid onto despite my attempts to steer away from it. We tried digging. I tried reverse, then drive, then reverse again. Nothing. More digging.
We got the rock out, but Olga was still stuck.
Thankfully, there were a lot of people parked along the shoulder (shame on you all. Really.) and there were several guys close with dune buggies warming up the engines and putting on goggles, and doing all the kinds of things people do to prepare dune buggies to... well, do whatever it is dune buggies do.
So we trudged across the sand, scoping out which of the dune buggy-ers looked the most cheerful, and trying to decide who I should ask for help.
A middle aged man in a yellow shirt was the first unlucky soul to look my way. I greeted him, gestured at Olga, and asked if he might be able to help pull us out. (Apparently, he'd just finished towing someone else out of a similar situation.)
Before I'd even finished my plea, he gestured past me and nodded.
Someone else had already come to the rescue.
We rushed back to Olga's side as baseball cap and jeans guy here crawled around in the sand near the front end and looked for a safe place to hook his towstrap.
"Need a hand?"
"It certainly looks that way. I've got a shovel? We've towed her before and we usually tie to the frame."
He frowned a moment, then jogged around the back. He was very excited to see the hitch.
"I'll just pull you backwards a bit. Back onto the solid, rocky stuff. Then you just dodge those rocks there and gun it through the sand back up onto the pavement."
I refrained from telling him that was the exact plan that had gotten us into this predicament in the first place, and instead smiled and said we'd give it a shot.
So dune buggy guy hooked up, we jumped in, and I threw Olga in reverse.
The buggy gave a good, solid jerk, I hit the gas, and we were back on semi-solid ground. Dune buggy guy unhooked his tow strap, gave Olga a good natured pat, and waved at me in the mirror.
Olga came out of that sand like a bat outta the hot place, swung around in a fishtale like you see in action movies, and we tore down the road trailing smoke and flames.
Just kidding.
I hit the gas pretty hard, we started a bit sluggish, and then found our footing long enough to climb back onto the road.
I looked back in time to call my thanks at the dune buggy guy as he tore off across the sand, and that was the last of that.
Suffice it to say, we parked along the shoulder for our adventure, spent the better part of an hour climbing the sand dunes like desert nomads.
In the middle of Idaho. Who knew, right?
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We drove to Craters of the Moon national reserve after that.
A huge lava flow spread over I don't know how far, Craters of the Moon felt like some kind of sci-fi movie set. Old lava as far as your eye can see, with plants and trees just growing right up out of the rock.
The weather was windy, and a little cold, and we were thankful it wasn't as hot as it had been previously. I can only imagine what blazing sun on all those miles of black rocks would have felt like.
We walked a few trails, drove the "scenic loop" around the (comparatively) small park, and climbed a giant hill.
Man was that a view.
After walking the 5 minutes back down the hill (it took over five minutes to walk DOWN. Not sure at what point a hill becomes a mountain, but I think that one may have been on the border) we jumped back in the car and took off again in search of the lava tubes (caves) the ranger at the gate had told us about.
Man, was that a sight. We pulled in, geared up, grabbed a flashlight, and took off down the mile long trail.
We played cave explorer for at least an hour, climbing over rocks and through crevices and getting cave water dripped down the backs of our necks. It was beautiful, and huge, and I think I want to be a spelunker when I grow up.
Living vicariously through your adventures might just be the highlight of my summer :)
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