A Pleasant Place

Circle Creek Basin, a rock-studded valley surrounded by high, rocky, ragged-looking mountains, looked much as it did when California Trail emigrants camped there many years ago. Considered a good and pleasant place for camping, it offered the three necessities of a suitable camp: water, fuel, and grass. Many emigrant trains spent the night there and grazed their livestock in the creek bottom below. Unlike most campsites along the 2,000-mile trail, however, the basin also offered massive rocks, very different from the flat prairie traveled thus far, that inspired travelers. While some rested, others recorded their impressions in words, and a few sketched or pictured the unusual rock formations.

Idaho · United States