We were guests of the local River Rapids School and were
able to get some internet access and a burger down the road at the only diner
in town. That evening we were treated to a lasagna dinner provided by the
locals, and offers to fill any of our needs. There aren’t any local stores, so
our hosts said they could call around town and probably come up with whatever
we wanted. Now that’s hospitality!
“Nearby” Malta is the City of Rocks. It is a National Park
of unique geologic formations rising from the sagebrush about 30 miles SW of
Malta. Tom Weber lent us his car and 6 of us made the journey. It was well
worth the miles of unpaved roads shared with cows that were free-ranging
despite the fenced fields. We arrived about an hour before sunset, and made our
way into the sagebrush meadows to get better looks at the landscape.
The formations are unusual, erected volcanically millions of
years ago and carved by weather. It would take at least a week to properly
explore the area, but we made the best of our time to just take as much as we
could into our cameras. I’ve never seen anything like this, so it was inspiring
to me and the others, especially Nate, who perhaps imagined himself a Sir
Edmond Hillary, determined to conquer the highest formation before sundown. We
talked him out of it without violence.
With nightfall rapidly encroaching and temperatures dropping
we head back to Malta, finding a shorter, paved, cow-free road. Upon arriving
from this direction we arrived at the town limits and noticed the sign; Malta- Population
193. We tend to have an impact everywhere we go, and it was nice to be included
in this community.
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