2014-1 Camas Prairie & Centennial Marsh, Idaho
Hello All,
Our 2014 travels got off to a slow start. Dave had to have some plumbing work done on his heart early in the year. So with that and the recovery time, we didn’t make our first roadtrip until late in the month of May. This multi-day trip would take us to the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh Wildlife Area in south central Idaho and then on to the City of Rocks National Preserve in southeast Idaho.
We arrived at the 3,100 acre Wildlife Management Area by mid-morning and began checking it out. It is located at the base of the Bennett Hills on the Camas Prairie south of the Soldier Mountains and Sawtooth National Forest near Hill City. The flat tableland on the prairie creates a large floodplain for Camas Creek, flooding the prairie to a depth of less than a foot during spring runoff. Camas lilies begin blooming in late May and the area attracts many birds. The flooded prairie is often again dry by mid-July.
We cruised through the prairie snapping photos from many different perspectives.
Our 2014 travels got off to a slow start. Dave had to have some plumbing work done on his heart early in the year. So with that and the recovery time, we didn’t make our first roadtrip until late in the month of May. This multi-day trip would take us to the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh Wildlife Area in south central Idaho and then on to the City of Rocks National Preserve in southeast Idaho.
We arrived at the 3,100 acre Wildlife Management Area by mid-morning and began checking it out. It is located at the base of the Bennett Hills on the Camas Prairie south of the Soldier Mountains and Sawtooth National Forest near Hill City. The flat tableland on the prairie creates a large floodplain for Camas Creek, flooding the prairie to a depth of less than a foot during spring runoff. Camas lilies begin blooming in late May and the area attracts many birds. The flooded prairie is often again dry by mid-July.
We cruised through the prairie snapping photos from many different perspectives.
Here is a close up photo of a
Camas Lily.
It is a lovely area surrounded
by working farms. We drove the dirt roads exploring. You never know what you
will come across.
Here is one of many pronghorns
that were in the area.
Centennial Marsh was quite
lovely although there was a strong wind blowing. It about blew us over trying
to take photos. However, the surface of the water was well protected from the
wind.
There were families of Canada
geese throughout the marsh. This pair was raising five fledglings.
The adults were keeping a pretty close eye on
us.
Our challenge for the day was
trying to photograph the yellow-headed blackbirds in the dead cattails and
bushes. Everything was moving around in the wind and the birds feathers would
flare up with each gust. We’ve observed lots of blackbirds and red-winged
blackbirds. But, this was our first encounter with yellow-headed blackbirds.
In the following two photos
you can see how the wind has their feathers fluffed up.
We finally caught one in
between gusts of wind. We thought they were kind of neat looking.
From the wildlife area we took
ID-46 southbound heading towards Twin Falls, ID, where we would spend the
night. The highway took us through an area that had some amazing rim rocks.
Some had lichen on them. They really lit up with the late afternoon sun on
them.
After spending the night in
Twin Falls we made a loop drive into southeast Idaho and back. We visited
Castle Rocks State Park and City of Rocks National Preserve. Hope you will
consider riding along with us on that adventure.
Until next time,
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns
Until next time,
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns