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Journeys
''; Hikers tread lightly on Idaho dunes The 12,000-year-old Bruneau Sand Dunes measure 470 feet high Gannett News Service BRUNEAU, Idaho -- Wes Whitworth clambers up the spine of the Big Dune, ignoring the deep imprints his hiking boots are leaving in the sand.
Bruneau Dunes State Park is one of the few places where park naturalists don't worry about visitors leaving a trace. After all, the wind will erase that trace by next morning.
But the sand dunes -- a giant sand box fit for the likes of the Jolly Green Giant -- have made a lasting imprint on the minds of the 90,000 visitors and researchers who visit it each year.
One of Idaho's largest state parks, it has become an outdoor classroom for about 4,000 schoolkids each year since it was developed in 1968. And it's within a two-hour drive of 60 percent of Idaho's population, making it a natural retreat for those who want to shuck their cabin fever.
German, Swiss and French travelers scan the ocean of sand from tour buses. And scientists come here to study a plethora of "ologies," from geology to vulcanology and serpentology. Among them are NASA researchers who set off smoke bombs to understand craters on Mars.
It started with a flood
The Bruneau Sand Dunes are the largest single-structure sand dune in North America, taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid. There are a few dunes in Colorado that reach higher than their 470 feet, but those dunes piggyback on mountainsides.
Scientists think that the sand began collecting in the basin about 12,000 years ago.
The catalyst was the Lake Bonneville Flood, the second biggest flood in the world after Northern Idaho's Lake Missoula Flood.
Lake Bonneville burst through an ice dam near Preston, sending a flow 200 times that of today's Snake River across Idaho for six weeks. The water slammed against a lava wall on the park's outskirts and swirled around in what is now known as Eagle Cove as it waited to get out. The huge eddy deposited the sand.
Unlike most dunes, which shift and move with changes in air current, these dunes do not. The natural basin and prevailing winds blowing from the southeast and northwest trap the sand in a semicircular pattern.
Left behind is a crossroads of habitats, including a marshland of bulrushes and duckweeds and prairie that attract a variety of critters, from the majestic eagles that catch thermals above the desert floor to the scorpions that slink across the sand at night.
A couple of small lakes appeared in the early 1950s after C.J. Strike Reservoir was built nearby. With them came some desert grass and brush at the base of the sand dunes.
A park for all seasons
Bruneau Dunes State Park is a park for all seasons. The park sports a long camping season -- from February through October. Even winter works its magic on the dunes, as the wind cuts unevenly across the moist sand to carve different patterns from those found in summer.
But the overwhelming number of people come here in spring.
The white orchid-like desert lily, also called the Easter lily, is just now beginning to push its way out of the ground. It will be followed by dozens of other flowers, including the pale evening primrose, storksbill, prairie clover and prince's plume.
Built to survive
Plants, critters and even bugs must be hardy to survive in this part of America's highest, largest, coldest desert. Each has its own way of compensating for a home that provides only 7 inches of precipitation each year and a temperature that swings from below zero in winter to 110 degrees in summer.
Black-tailed jackr abbits dissipate heat through their big ears. Insects such as the assassin bug and the Dunes tiger beetle burrow underground to keep cool. They also have a wax that keeps moisture from evaporating.
And sagebrush doesn't profess to have tea party manners. It gulps, it doesn't sip, whatever bit of moisture comes its way.
Visitors to the park don't have to look far to see some of the park's inhabitants. Two 2-foot-tall great horned owls have taken up residence in a black locust tree in the campground for the past several months.
Their "hoo-hoos" have spurred complaints from campers who can't sleep through the racket.
These owls don't load up on munchies at Albertson's. They get their meals from rabbits who make the mistake of munching on the campground lawn. One camper watched an owl snatch his hot dog after it rolled off the barbecue. Another camper found his lost cat cowering under the car hood.
"People think the desert is dull and boring -- it's just the opposite," said park supervisor Whitworth, whose face has been sandblasted by 20 years of living in the shadow of the dunes.
A view to the skies
This year park officials hope to shift visitors' focus from the sand around their feet to the skies above.
The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation is working with the Boise Astronomical Society to raise funds to build a state-of-the-art astronomical complex and natural science center near the lake.
The complex would house three observatories containing two general-purpose telescopes and one research-grade telescope for professional astronomers and experienced amateurs.
The observatory would be the first public observatory in Idaho and one of only 17 nationwide, Whitworth said.
AT A GLANCE
Where: The 4,800-acre Bruneau Dunes State Park is 20 miles south of Boise, near Bruneau. To get there from Boise, head east on Interstate 84. Take the first Mountain Home exit, drive through town and head south on Idaho 51. Turn east on Idaho 78 and follow this to the park.
Entry fee: $2 per vehicle beginning April 5.
Camping: $16 for water and electrical hookups. $12 for sites without hookups. Showers included in camp fee. The park is accepting reservations for its 48 sites for the first time this year. There are three picnic shelters.
Visitor center: The one-room center features a variety of exhibits on bugs, mammals, birds, flowers and geology of the area. Also, a barbed wire exhibit with relics dates back to 1868. And there are prehistoric remains, including a mammoth's pelvic bone. Visitors can watch the video "The Great Floods," which discusses how floods -- specifically the Lake Missoula Flood -- carve out areas like the Snake River Plain.
Gift Shop: The center has kites and a variety of Idaho souvenirs for sale, such as huckleberry- and syringa-scented lotions made from potatoes; chocolate huckleberry taffy made in Sandpoint; arrowhead magnets; laser wind socks and moonstreamers; nature books; and T-shirts.
Information: (208) 366-7919. The Olympian Copyright 1999
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