Down the Road: We "Massacred" the Bass at Massacre Rocks

Massacre Rocks State Park
American Falls, Idaho

We're on our way back to California after coming down the far western side of Montana and decided to hit the south/east side of Idaho too. Some of which we've repeated from earlier trips. We always try to find some different spots so when we came upon Massacre Rocks State Parks we decided to stop there for a few days.

Site #9, W/E 50amp, $34. A bit pricey for a state park but with temps in the mid 90s, A/C is nice!

Some decently long sites. We had no reservations as I checked a few times and there were plenty open. Of course, when I called a few days before once we knew our dates, they were almost full. Lucky for us 2 sites side-by-side opened up that were long enough for us and my brother. Just wide enough to fit in.

Another nice, large site further down. There are two loops. One higher up and a lower one. Neither are directly on the water, but both loops have sites with great views of the Snake River below. There is a place to put the kayak in a couple miles away in the park.

This site has is a very long back in. Not as narrow as it looks.

They have some nice cabins with great views too.

View of the Snake River from the cabin.

Massacre Rocks State Park is full of history featuring the Massacre Rocks, a famous spot along the Oregon and California Trails. It gets its name from an emigrant wagon party skirmish. Register Rock, located two miles from the park, is home to a huge boulder that holds the signatures of Oregon Trail emigrants
We walked around a bit and checked out Devils Garden. Then we purchased Non-Resident fishing licenses for $29. So nice to be able to get these online nowadays.

Off we went the next morning. The river here is very wide and shallow around the edges and slower moving. Perfect for bass with all the tules and brush. We just had to fight the wind a bit.

We caught several Large and Smallmouth Bass mostly on Brushhogs.

Some had the strangest coloring though. Very gray in color with gray bellies.

We came upon a couple of docks with a nice little grass area and a cute shack along the bank. It isn't private property but had a nice little picnic set up.

See the gray bellies instead of white?

After dinner we took a drive down to see Register Rock.

Always interesting to see these old signatures. They keep them fully gated so they can't be damaged.

Marina in American Falls.

Hurley loved swimming here in the marina area. I wish we could've come back to fish this area.

The next morning we went out to fish the other side of the river and had a slow start but then it picked up and we caught (and released) so many bass we lost count. The cows were out grazing this side of the river and didn't care that we were there drifting by.

More of those gray bass.

This will be the last of our fishing for the year. What a blast it has been traveling with my brother and sister in law the past few weeks.

After a long day of fishing we went into Pocatello to the Jim Dandy Brewery for some tasting and appetizers.

Mimosa's for Diane and I.

Great Carne Asada Nachos.

Interesting house in town and a very patriotic painted chopper.

Later that evening when it cooled off some, we hiked to where the California Trail crosses with the Oregon Trail. There are supposed to be some historic (wagon) ruts. They weren't very interesting though. It just looked like a narrow trail. Not as impressive as others we have seen.