Wanderlust

Wanderlust comes from the German Wandem and Lust, which literally translated means to love to hike.  To say we suffer from wanderlust is like saying the sky is blue.  People wonder why we would go off camping in the wilderness with the bare necessities.  We are Grandparents in our 50's for Heaven's sake.  What could we be thinking?  Jay and I have never seen life as a spectator sport.  Our time on this earth is so minuscule in the whole scheme of things, and we don't intend to waste a single minute or miss a single thing.  There is too much to see, and most of it can't be seen from the interstate.  So, our latest adventure begins.  We hopped in the Commander, our side by side ATV, one day and headed out West of Idaho Falls into the barren lava rock and sage brush desert to a place called Hell's Half acre. I get the Hell part, but not the half acre part since this area is 18 miles wide by 5 miles deep.  Four thousand years ago a vent opened up in what was then just a simple prairie and gushed forth liquid, molten lava.  This deadly hot liquid oozed like wicked pudding across the landscape destroying everything in its path.  Then it turned black, cooled and started to become solid.  As it cooled, the solid parts would sometimes break off the still cooling mass, leaving giant trenches and tears in the mountains of solid rock.  Sometimes an air bubble would be trapped inside the molten liquid and as the crust cooled, the bubble would burst leaving a deep pocket in the side of the rock mountain or cause the crust to fall in and leave a deep depression.  As we drove around the perimeter of this massive wasteland we could see these little caves and openings.  There is only one way to explore the unforgiving miles of lava flows and that is on foot.  So hatched our plan.  We would find the perfect spot to camp for the night.  Then we would come out here and explore and look for small game and more caves.  After two days of driving around the lava fields, we found the perfect location.  There was a cave in the side of the mountain on one of the many little spur roads.  You had to climb over a small lava rock rim into a bowl that was filled with frozen snow and water forming a small ice pond.  Across the ice pond we could climb up just a few feet into a small cave at the top of the lava hill.  We put the location in the GPS and headed home.  We made a list of essentials and what would fit in the back of the commander.  We gathered what we needed, packed it up and loaded up the commander.  About five miles from our camp site there is a place to park the truck and unload the ATV.  We easily found our special place again and proceeded to carry our provisions over the rim, into the bowl, up the rocks, and into our cave.  Jay spread a tarp over the soft, black volcanic sand that covered the floor of the cave and then placed our sleeping bags.  We found a good spot at the cave's opening edge for a fire where the smoke would be drawn outside the cave.  We found a flat rock for our one burner fuel stove and a suitable location across the ice pond for a latrine.  Now we were set.  Jay decided to climb to the top of our hill and cross the lavas looking for small game.  I decided to go on a walkabout.  I planted my feet on the rough rocks and with my .38 on my right hip and my .22 pistol on my left hip, I climbed to the top of the hill and looked across the flows.  I could see for miles.  The lavas are deceiving.  The rocks look smooth and rounded with rippling surfaces that seem like they are made of gooey pudding.  But they are anything but soft.  Every step must be carefully placed because the surface is rough, and craggy with loose stones that would turn an ankle or send a person falling onto rock that will tear human skin to shreds.  In the words of Owen Wilson's character in the movie Armageddon, it is about the worst environment known to man.  I carefully picked my way across the black rocks all the while keeping a landmark in view to show me where my cave was.  Once on top of the flows, without a compass or a visible landmark, you would find yourself lost in no time.  The lavas flow up and down in waves.  I crawled down into deep depressions and then climbed back up to the top of the rim only to discover another deep valley.  I found holes and caves and deep cracks all along my trail.  I constantly kept oriented to the landmark I had picked.  I crawled up and down and picked my way across the rocks for about 1/2 mile before I finally found a large rock at the top of a hill and sat down and gazed around me.  Here in what seemed to be the wildest, cruelest place I had ever seen was an amazing abundance of life.  The lava had once destroyed all the life that existed here, but it had found a way to return.  There was green, white, and red lichens covering the stones.  A grayish, spongy fungus covered everything giving the appearance of a soft mossy ground.  In the tiniest crack with barely a dusting of soil there grew craggy and crooked bushes that sprouted harsh red flowers, and vicious cactus with long, sharp spines.  The sagebrush sprouted seemingly from the rock itself and it's pungent aroma filled the breeze.  Squatty cedar trees with their rugged needles still brown from the harsh winter snows that had just recently melted grew in no more than a what seemed like a teaspoon of dirt in the depression of the rocks.  Prairie grass just turning green grows in the little patches of soil in the valleys between the rock hills.  The breeze was filled with the scents that reminded me of where I live.  I can see Jay walking across the lavas in the distance, his gun resting on his arm.  I'm hoping he will find a rabbit for dinner, but other than a few small birds, I think plants are the only living things in this rough terrain.  The air starts to chill as the sun moves toward the western horizon and I start my careful climb through the ragged landscape back to my cave.  Once there, I build a fire and as the flames lick the roof of the cave, our little camp warms up.  Soon Jay returns and confirms my fears that we will not be having rabbit for dinner.  So, I open my backup rations and heat up a nice roast beef and corn hash for a gourmet camping meal.  With our stomachs full, we decide to do some more exploring and we climb to the top of our hill once again.  This time we head off together toward the South where I thought I had heard a coyote bark earlier.  We carefully climbed up the steep hills and crawled down the rock faces into the depressions in the rocks.  We hopped over more than one deep rift in the rock and then headed back to the West toward the road.  After one final descent down  the face of a pitted lava rock hill, we reached the little trail around the lava flow and walked back to where we had parked the Commander.  In all, it was about a mile and a half hike up and down the rocks.  We knew we would feel it in the morning.  But for now, we climbed over the lava rim, across the ice pond, up the rock ledge and sat at the opening to our cave.  We watched the stars as they popped into the twilight sky with the crescent moon straight above us.  The only sounds were the crackling fire and the silence.  Soon the desert was bathed in blackness and our fire had burned to embers.  Jay lit the Coleman lantern and we settled into our sleeping bags for the night.  I felt a little claustrophobic as I stared at the huge boulders hanging suspended just a few feet above my head.  I wondered what could be holding them in place.  It was almost a relief when he turned off the lantern and I couldn't see them there above me any more.  But, the mouth of the cave was bathed in light and the night sky full of stars, the cedars, the sage brush and the lava mountains were framed there like a beautiful painting.  I pulled the sleeping bag over my head to keep out the cold and drifted off to sleep.  Morning came in what seemed like a moment and the sky was purple with the first light of morning.  I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and put on my boots so I could make my way across the ice pond to the latrine.  By the time I was back, Jay was up and I cooked a delicious breakfast of fried spam and scrambled eggs.  I washed the dishes and rolled up the sleeping bags while Jay carried our supplies down the rocks, across the ice pond, over the lava rim and packed them into the commander.  This adventure was over, but it was everything we had desired.  We had seen the landscape and breathed the aromas of the desert.  Now we will return home and rest, because we are of course, old.  We will sit in our recliners and watch the Discovery Channel and before we know it the wanderlust bug will bite again.