Day 7 - Minnetonka Cave

 Our last big stop for our trip was Minnetonka Cave near St. Charles, Idaho. I had found out about it during my research and figured we just had to make a stop. The 10-mile paved road to the entrance is in really good condition. We had it all to ourselves so were surprised to pull up to a full parking lot at 11 a.m. We bought tickets right away for a tour starting at 11:30. By the time we started our tour, they were selling for 1:30 p.m.

A short walk leads to the entrance. Minnetonka Cave is on the Cache National Forest. The tours are run by a concessionaire.

The cave tour includes 444 steps each way, both up and down, so it's a little workout. We had plenty of time to stop and look at some of the nice formations.

Some porcupine bones were arranged on a boulder. Before the cave was called Minnetonka Cave, it was known as Porcupine Cave.

Unfortunately some parts of the cave are lit with colored lights. I guess this is to make the cave more appealing to visitors, but it detracts from the natural beauty of the cave. Likewise, the tour would be much better if the tour guide concentrated on facts and not pointing out the Seven Dwarfs and having us name them all (major eye rolling), along with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy's Tail, in the form of a "halagmite" (more eye rolling).

We enjoyed the cave, and it's well worth the stop.

From there we ate lunch in the rain (rain, what's rain?) in Garden City, headed down beautiful Logan Canyon, and stopped at the Utah State University Press. I had never met the people who published my book in person (the book is available over in the sidebar), so it was nice to put a name and voice to a face!

We dropped off my brother Ed in Salt Lake City, as we didn't have a way back for him to the airport, and he didn't want to risk getting stuck in the boonies. I'm sure he would have eventually adapted! Fortunately he was able to find some fun things to over the weekend. We then headed back out into the void. The entire trip was about 1,500 miles, which to my mind was not that much for a week.  Of course, when I was a kid, it was a three-day drive home from Yellowstone, with lots of fighting with my brothers. ("Mom, he touched me!") Fortunately my kids haven't started that (yet) and were good travelers. I guess it's time to start thinking about a fall weekend getaway. Hmm...