Hagerman, Idaho

We chose to stay at High Adventure River Tours RV Park near Hagerman, Idaho because it is part of the Passport America club. It is nice clean park with all pull throughs. All sites are amply shaded with plenty of grass covered room between each site. The people running the park are friendly and helpful. It is within ear-shot of I-84 but the noise is really not noticeable. The BIG problem is that 500 cow diary somewhere down the road a couple of miles. 500 cows produce a tremendous amount of urine and the smell envelopes the campground like a suffocating fog when the wind is wrong. It did twice during the two days we stayed at HART RV Park. Seven lived north of a cattle lot most of her life and we raised cattle for a couple of years so the smell is not totally intolerable for us. Some people would probably unhook and move on in about 5 minutes. It is a shame. The park only had 5 campers staying there.

From HART RV Park we visited several attractions in the area.

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Park visitor center is worth a visit. The park itself is not if you are pressed for time. There is no charge. If seeing Oregon Trail wheel ruts is on your to-see list be sure to visit the park. There are some excellent wheel ruts visible from the road or from trails. The visitor center is in beautiful downtown Hagerman. Hagerman RV Village north of downtown looks like it is a nice, friendly RV Park. It has free Wi-Fi available and the friendly manager would let us use it even though we were not staying there.

The state fish hatchery off of US-30 looks run down but functional. They have a show tank with rainbow, golden, sturgeon, and other fish species in it. All the tanks are covered with chicken wire because of the flock of white American pelicans hanging out nearby. There were several ponds to fish in.

The US Wildlife Fish Hatchery is near to the state hatchery (you can go out the back way and get there instead of going back out to US-30 down the road a couple of miles then back the US Wildlife Hatchery). The hatchery grows steelhead trout for sports fisherman and to replenish wild stocks. The steelhead is like the salmon in that it migrates back from the ocean to where it had hatched in fresh water. There was a trailer full of technicans and equipment that was clipping the adipose fin from fingerlings. Fisherman can keep steelheads without the fin but have to return those that have them. The operation was almost totally computerized. Friendly techs gave us a first class lesson on steelheads. There is no charge for touring the hatchery.

Malad Gorge State Park is a mile or so from the HART RV Park. In the park there is a tremendous 250' deep gorge that was cut through the basalt that covers this area. The Snake River and Malad River cut the gorge. There is a long footbridge across the gorge where the falls drop into a feature called Devil's Wash Bowl. To see the falls a short walk down to an overlook is necessary. The drive back along the gorge is interesting. Be sure to pick up the informative self-guiding tour brochure. There are nice picnic facilities here. A $4 use fee is required. 1,000s of RVers probably go past this great little park at 75 mph each week because they are hell-bent on getting to the next mini-Disneyland down the road. You also miss seeing snakes in the road if you go too fast. Slow down and enjoy.