View from the visitor center

This weekend I decided to go and check out Celebration Park.  It’s located along the Snake River, just South of Melba, Idaho.  Celebration Park offers camping, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and tours of the Petroglyphs to name a few things.

Basalt Field

My choice to start off the day was to hike east toward Swan Falls, along the river.  It was a warm day and I quickly discovered I had forgotten my sun screen!  Well, I did get burned, but the scenery and hike was incredible.  I took the river canyon trail first.  I wandered around quite awhile in the basalt fields, amazed at the size of these boulders which were washed in during the Lake Bonneville Flood at least 15,000 years ago.

Halverson Lakes

About mid-way through I headed North toward Halverson Lakes.  It is truly a desert oasis which suddenly comes into view.  During my visit there were birds, rabbits, lizards and plenty of bugs flying about.  It was a wonderful place to take a break and enjoy the scenery.  I started back along my way, this time following the Halverson Lakes Loop trail.  This took me eventually back to the river, where I followed it back to camp.  At the end of that hike, I was at about 8.5 miles.

Foot Bridge across Snake River

After a rest and some late lunch, I headed in the other direction

from camp to hike up and out of the canyon via the old train trestle bridge.  This hike goes along a path through  Guffey Butte.  The view is spectacular.  You can see for miles in each direction.  By the time I reached my vantage point, the sun was moving behind the mountains, so I decided to head back and visit the Petroglyphs at Celebration Park.

One boulder with Petroglyphs

The Rock Art in Celebration Park are Petroglyphs which were carved into the rock following the Bonneville Flood some 15,000 years ago.  It is thought that some of the Petroglyphs at Celebration park are as old as 10,000 years.  This rock art was created by Paleo-Indians, which makes this site sacred to the Native Americans.

The Egg - Interesting cracks in basalt

I very much enjoyed looking at these historic drawings, and wandering around seeking out others.  There are literally thousands of these basalt boulders to look at, so you can spend quite a while there.  After many photos and video captures, I headed back to camp to watch the sunset and hit the sack.  This was a wonderful place to visit!

Below, enjoy the movie I made of my travels.