We were early to rise on Monday morning, August 21, 2017. We had miles to drive from Island Park to the place we had picked to watch the total solar eclipse. We left the cabin in what we thought would be plenty of time but as we approached the highway there was already a line of cars that looked like they may have stretched back all the way to West Yellowstone. Fortunately, everyone was being polite and taking turns letting cars in. My son started to panic and convinced my husband that we needed to get off the highway and travel the dirt road to the east called Fish Creek Road.
As you can see, this route would take us quite some distance from Highway 20. My vote was "NO." I lost and we were soon making a U-turn on the highway to connect to Big Springs road and then the Fish Creek road. We did have it to ourselves. Eventually we passed a van full of New Yorkers who were totally amazed that we wanted to pass them and their dust. We were soon far enough away that they had no dust. Notice those switchbacks. That part was pretty fun and eventually we reached black top that was so seldom used there were grasses and flowers growing in the cracks. Benefit of this route, beautiful wildflowers along the road.
Our son-in-law is not prone to panic (unlike our son.) He stayed on the highway and reached our planned destination and meeting point 10 minutes before we did.
We could have both stopped in Ashton but that location farther north would have a minute less of a the grand experience of a total solar eclipse. Ashton may have been the place of my birth but my first 12 years of life were spent in Sugar City.
Our planned location was the Sugar City Cemetery located south of Sugar City and northeast of Rexburg. I have many ancestors buried in this cemetery. I looked forward to showing my grand children their grave markers. However, the cemetery gates were padlocked as were several other places. Signs were in place stating that there would be no access between August 16 and 23. Bottom line, one could not watch the eclipse from every place but fortunately, there were still plenty of places to be.
We just pulled over to the side of the road next to the fence.
Not much traffic so the boys had plenty of room to be eclipse warriors.
At this point, we were already seeing a difference in the light.
And in the shadows of the trees. When the moon completely covered the sun, we experienced something so wonderful it is hard to even describe it. I had decided to not worry about taking pictures but to just enjoy my two minutes plus of totality where the sky darkened, the sun solar flares put on their show, planets became visible, and sunset formed all around us. I will never forget the wonder of it all.
My daughter took this great video of our experience.
Total Eclipse of the Sun from the Sugar City Cemetery
Side note: After the eclipse we took Highway 32 back to Ashton where we got gas and then drove on to Island Park through the Mesa Falls route. We pulled of the highway and drove into the site of the Teton Dam. This dam failed on June 6, 1976 flooding miles and miles of land, farms, homes, and towns. The dam was first breached on the left side of this picture. Now there is just a large mound of the dam in place in the center of the canyon with openings on both sides.
This photo is looking west with the Teton River visible on the right side of the photo. Several fishermen lost their lives will fishing downstream on that day 41 years ago. It was sobering to see this site again and then to realized how many years had passed since that horrible day.
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