Red Rock Pass

Today, Evelyn and I took a trip north into Idaho to visit a place called Red Rock Pass. I’ve wanted to visit this place for nearly two decades, but never knew how close it actually was. I have known about this pass since I did a paper on Lake Bonneville back in my college days. This is the approach to the pass from the south along highway 91.

The fame of Red Rock Pass comes from it being the location where Lake Bonneville emptied into the Snake River at the rate of a million cubic meters of water per second. Within a month the lake level had dropped three hundred feet to a level equal to the new elevation of the pass after it being breached by this unequaled flood of water. It took that long because of the great size of this prehistoric fresh water lake. In many places in Utah you can see the level of the lake because of the wide flat bench of gravel and rock that, in some places, is a thousand feet above the valley floor. I regularly hike along one such ancient roadway not far from my home in Brigham City. This sign may explain a few things. If you  can read it.



This is a stop on the side of the road in the middle of the pass. The stairs take you to the top of the windy knoll and to a memorial to a very brave man. I have forgotten the particulars of his fame but remember that he was part of the handcart company “A” coming to Utah. This is important because it was thought that this should be the northern boundary of the state of Utah because all the water north of it empties into the Columbia River and to the Pacific. All the water south of this point drains into the remnant of Lake Bonneville, the great Salt Lake. On the other side of the hill is a cemetery in an enclosed fence. I never checked on the names though. Maybe next time.

Here is Evelyn working her way to the top of the stairs to see all that can be seen from there.

We went north from here to see the boulder fields that I had read about, but we never found them. These rocks and boulders are said to be from the size of cantaloupes to the size of a car. They were pushed up into wide mounds by the tremendous force of the flood. We never found them. We ended up getting some treats at a truck stop and heading for home by the back roads. This has been a day well spent.