BLM officials urge visitors to be mindful of those plants and also to avoid the sandy edges of the plateau, which are susceptible to erosion.
#Shoofly oolite trail cracked#
Some stretches of the flats have dried into cracked mud dotted with flat stones and rare plants, like Mulford’s milkvetch. Watch your step - the sand and ooids can create a slipping hazard on the rocks.Įven the landscape surrounding the oolite structures is fascinating. Parts of the rock form a window that frame the Owyhees to the west, while others create overhead arches reminiscent of the iconic red sandstone structures at Zion and Arches national parks in Utah. You can sit in the round craters hollowed out of heaped oolite domes or climb along rolling expanses of craggy rock. Once you reach the plateau, you can easily explore the nooks and crannies created in the Pliocene Epoch by the ancient Lake Idaho. There are a few already-worn paths to choose from, some a bit steeper than others, that take you up the short climb to the top of the plateau where the trail ends. From here, the trail becomes harder to follow as the soft soil of the oolite creates sandy hills similar to those at the nearby Bruneau Sand Dunes. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the edge of the rim where the rock formations are visible. The trail is short, well-marked and in great shape. The formations line the rim of a small plateau about half a mile from the trailhead. The Shoofly Oolite - named for nearby Shoofly Creek - is one of the largest ooid formations in the world, according to the BLM. “… Wave action that varied with the seasons, the weather, and the types of sediment in the water washed the ooids back and forth in the shallows on the southwestern side of Lake Idaho, depositing them from 2 to 40 feet thick on steeper benches near the shore.” “Oolite (egg stone) is sedimentary limestone composed of tiny ooids, which form when calcium carbonate precipitates in concentric layers around individual grains of sand,” one sign reads. At the trailhead, which is marked by a wooden barrier, the BLM has installed signs explaining the significance of the oolite. The trail crosses about half a mile of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. There’s not much space for multiple vehicles, but we saw only one other group during our visit. There’s a small gravel turnout that serves as a parking area and trailhead. It’s about an hour from Boise via Simco Road, and the entire route is paved. Unless you’re a fan of flying dust and sand, keep an eye on the forecast. We made it to the trailhead on a windless Saturday afternoon.
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