The Pasture Hikes

Hikes: D.
Total Distance, D: 2-5 miles.
Difficulty: Level I.
Season: Yeararound.
USGS Map: Pasadena Valley.
BLM 100K Map: Glenns Ferry.
Dirt Road Miles: 1 gravel.
PLSS Location: Section 20, T5S R11E.

Introduction: This is a wonderful place to hike in winter. Yes, it's been overgrazed (note the name), but it is quite wild, geologically fascinating, and is just plain fun to poke around. There are two hikes here. The first takes you to The Pasture proper, along the Snake River, with its amazing Bonneville Flood rock formations. The second takes you much higher in elevation, to equally interesting Bonneville Flood formations, and to a great view of the Snake River.
  The author rates this hike Level I because there are simply no routefinding difficulties. There are problems, however, crossing barbed wire fences on the upper portion.

The Pasture Hike: Just walk upstream as close to the Snake as reasonable. This means you'll pass through many truly amazing scablands rock formations left behind by the Bonneville Flood. Watch for the round holes in the rock, created when "mill stones" circled around and around, grinding deeper and deeper. Watch also for wide, grassy passageways through the rock. In places, the flanking natural rock walls are augmented by man-made rock. These were probably channels leading to kill zones where Indians waited for dumb wild sheep.
  As you walk, note how calm the Snake's waters are. This is very significant spot. Here, wildlife from Owyhee County can pass under the Interstate 80 bridge, ford the river, and proceed north across the Clover Creek wilderness to the Gooding City of Rocks area and the Smokies and Sawtooths beyond.
  The author always runs out of steam when the opposite shore closes in, and he encounters a trashed area that was somehow bulldozed (D1). However, he keeps hoping that someday he'll work out the logistics of being dropped off on I-84 and picked up at Clover Creek, so he can explore this entire area.

The Upper Hike: Cross the fence (choked with tumbleweed), and then cross the railroad tracks. Please be ultra-careful of trains! Now, in front of you is the source area for much of the Melon Gravel found around King Hill. It is typical lava rock, but what is untypical is what the Bonneville Flood did to it: plucked huge rocks and began rolling them downhill (to the right).
  Reach the source area, and start walking to the right. A few rocks were barely moved in the last moments of the Flood, and they still have their pahoehoe "ropes" visible. Continue a bit through these rocks, and then go left (west) to the canyon rim (D2). This is one of the best views of the Snake River.

Access: From King Hill town, drive 1 1/2 miles east, to the bridge over Clover Creek. On the east side of the bridge, a road goes under it. Take that road, which has a short rough stretch. Once into the open, watch for a road to the right which comes very quickly. Take it, and park after 1/4 mile close to the river (T1).
  For the upper trailhead (T2), leave I-84 at Exit 129 (the easternmost King Hill exit), and go east. The road quickly becomes gravel and heads west, paralleling the highway, and then abruptly passes a farm and cuts south along the railroad. From that sharp turn, drive 1 mile, until the road begins to cut left and leave the railroad. Park there (T2), and your route to the river and rocks will be on public land.