The Shoofly Oolites - A Geologic Wonderland in the Owyhee Canyonlands!

The author poses for a pic at the Shoofly Oolites. (courtesy Steve Schaps)

Guest Column
By Steve Schaps

The Shoofly Oolites are a geologic wonderland located about 60 miles southeast from Boise near Grand View, Idaho, at the foot of the Owyhee Canyonlands.

This location is probably the closest you can come to hiking on the surface of Mars. The hike is 1-3 miles in length. 

It is both dog friendly and kid friendly, so you can bring either one or both. This is a great place to bring kids or grandchildren. It’s about an hour’s drive from Boise, and a far less snowy or icy drive than if you were heading to the mountains to the north.

One of the main reasons to visit the Shoofly Oolites is the educational opportunity for kids and adults to learn about this geologic wonderland.

Oolites, known as “Egg Rocks,” are rocks made up of small round calcium carbonate deposits (not sand), which look like tiny BB-sized eggs. The Shoofly Oolites are one of the largest outcrops of Oolites in North America and possibly the largest freshwater Oolite accumulations on earth.

These Oolites were deposited in beach/shoal environments along the sides of ancient Lake Idaho around 2-5 million years ago in the Pliocene Era. Lake Idaho was in a large closed basin like the Great Salt Lake is today. It stretched from Eastern Oregon across most of the Snake River Plain, from Boise to the foothills of the Owyhee Mountains.

Most of the Treasure Valley’s groundwater and farm fields are in Lake Idaho deposits. It’s one of the reasons that the area has such abundant groundwater and agricultural resources.

Courtesy Steve Schaps 

The Shoofly Oolites are unusually thick, very homogeneous, and create an interesting area for a hike and geologic field trip. You can take home a few pieces of Oolite rocks, if you like. Bring a big. They are a bit crumbly.

The Oolite road-side stop is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It includes a few educational interpretive signs and a parking area.

There are lots of weird and interesting rock formations to see. The kids love this part … there are all kinds of caves, holes, arches and bathtub features to explore. A game of hide and seek, anyone?   

The Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology will be leading a geologic field trip to the Shoofly Oolites on April 16. Go to https://www.idahomuseum.org/ for more information.

There’s also a historic cemetery located one-half mile up the road that you can also explore.

How to get there:

·      Take I-84 east toward Mountain Home

·      Go right at Exit 74, Simco Road.

·      Follow Simco Road south for about 20 miles.

·      Turn right on Idaho Highway 167 and follow that to Grand View. Stock up on gas or any supplies at the Grand View quick stop.

·      Go left on Highway 78 and go east for about 2 miles to a Y-junction.

·      Veer right on Mud Flat Road, the Owyhee Backcountry Byway, a paved road to begin with, and follow that for about 9.5 miles. The Oolite BLM site is on the right. GPS coordinates are 42.837128/-116.121980.

Courtesy Steve Schaps 

Steve Schaps has a bachelor's and master's degree in Geoscience. He worked for over 30 years as a geophysicist in Houston, Texas. He's retired now. He's lived in Idaho for six years. Steve is also a volunteer at the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology. 

Some tips on learning about birds in SW Idaho on outings close to home

Red-winged blackbird at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve in Boise

Hi all,

I find that I am treasuring the small things in life right now during these weird times with the COVID-19 pandemic.

When out on a Boise Greenbelt ride or hiking the trails, I enjoy seeing things like the first wildflower blooms of the year, or watching the buds beginning to emerge on trees and shrubs. The stunning beauty of fruit tree blooms in our yard and the local 'hood. Just all kinds of little things make me smile.

We've all had to slow down the pace of our lives because of the coronavirus, stay closer to home, etc. At times like this, why not learn a little more about nature? For instance, why not take a little time to pay learn about the birds in your yard, your local neighborhood, the Boise River, the foothills or parks nearby? 

Yellow-headed blackbird at Hyatt Hidden Lakes

Springtime is a good time to watch for birds because there are lots of migrating birds passing through on their way to northern destinations and residents returning to nest. Songbirds we might see right now are feeding on buds and bugs, i.e., robins eating worms. Birds of prey are hunting for mice and ground squirrels. We see red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, kestrels and Swainson's hawks in the foothills doing courtship flight.    

Wendy and I went by the Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve today (near Chinden & Marigold) in Boise just before noon to take a few fresh pictures and see what kinds of birds we'd find in the wetlands and ponds. Wendy was happy to see that some yellow-headed blackbirds had moved into the area to establish nests for the next generation. We also saw a great blue heron at close range hiding in a little thicket as we walked into the reserve. We heard red-winged blackbirds everywhere in the wetlands.

On the ponds, we saw mallards, american coots, northern shovelers, pied-billed grebes, buffleheads, gadwalls and american wigeon. Elsewhere on our bird walk today, we saw snow geese, wild turkey, swainson's hawks, song sparrows, house rinches, robins and Canada geese.

If you're interested in a program about birds, the Boise River Enhancement Network is providing an educational program at 11:35 am-1 pm on Friday (April 17) by Louisa Evers of BREN and the Golden Eagle Audubon Society. The program will be presented via Zoom, and it's limited to the first 100 people who login tomorrow. Ms. Evers will talk about how to find and identify birds.

Coots

Great-blue heron getting hassled by a red-winged blackbird

Golden Eagle Audubon has a TON of birding programs coming up, so be sure to watch their web site for more information. Next week's program is on the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. 
 
The Idaho Birding Trail, sponsored by Idaho Fish and Game, is an excellent resource for learning where to find birds and what species you should expect to see at various locations. In the Southwest Idaho region, there are about 40 birding locations on the Idaho Birding Trail, including the Boise River, Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge/Lake Lowell, Black's Creek, Bruneau Dunes State Park and much more.

If you're on Facebook, the Idaho Birding page is fun to watch because a number of expert birders are posting really high-quality photos of songbirds, ducks and raptors on a continuing basis. Once you've spent some time on that page, you can friend some of the frequent posters who take amazing photos and share them with the group.

While you're out birding, start building your life list. I am lucky that Wendy is so knowledgeable about birds. She can identify songbirds from their calls or from sight. I have a long ways to go on that front.

Here's some video from 2010 when our backyard kestrel box yielded big results ... four baby kestrels fledged the nest that year and we watched how they did in their first few days out of the nest. Consider building your own kestrel box for your backyard ... it's fun!




Have fun! 

- SS