The Day of Total Solar Eclipse
This is the day we have been waiting for!
Our plan was to stay safe distance away from crazy hotel prices in the path of totality while avoiding traffic jams, and then to drive up to a spot on the line of totality depending on the weather and traffic conditions that day. Ideal and most convenient place would be just below Rexburg, ID on US-20 on the way to Yellowstone, some 82 miles away. Alternative plan was to continue on I-15N to someplace north of Roberts, ID.
We checked the weather the night before. It was clear everywhere near Rexburg. Without traffic, this 200+ mile trip from our hotel in Layton, UT - just north of Salt Lake City (SLC), would take nearly 3 hours. I-15 has posted speed limits of 70-75-80 mph, making the trip shorter. The question was how bad will the traffic be on Monday August 21 - no one knew.
Coming up to SLC on Sunday August 20, freeway signs warned drivers to expect traffic delays and to plan accordingly. At the hotel, a couple of guys from San Diego had the same idea as ours. However, they expected heavy traffic next morning and planned to leave at 5 am and go directly to Roberts - anticipating unmanageable crowds at Rexburg (pop. 50K.)
Local media and governments had predicted (who knows how!) that Idaho Falls (pop. 135K) would get 100K visitors pouring in to watch the eclipse. This entire area was expecting 250K visitors. Had that materialized, it would have overwhelmed the entire system - freeways, hotels, restaurants and stores. In reality, none of that happened - I guess they scared people away with their wild estimates.
My own rationale was that EVEN IF so many people were to converge to this area, most will come ahead of time, spend the weekend visiting Yellowstone (they did.) or relax. In any case, they will not be on the roads Monday morning - except for those day trippers coming from SLC, the only large city South of the path of totality in Idaho. Because schools had just started - or were starting shortly - anyone with school age children were unlikely to venture out here.
Sure enough, on Monday morning, the traffic was clear the entire way through - except for brief slowdowns here and there. Given that US-20 beyond Idaho Falls was also clear for the next 20 miles, we decided to drive to our preferred spot - Exit 332 Thornton, one exit before Rexburg. We left at 7 am and reached Thornton around 10 am. The normal traffic must be so sparse that even with the few additional cars - most with UT license plates, very few others - did not cause delays. (Truck traffic was banned that morning.)
At Exit 332, we saw some cars parked in the shady underpass, with people hanging around for the eclipse to commence. Railroad tracks ran parallel to US-20 - about 100 ft away to the East. We had seen people standing on the tracks to watch the eclipse at the previous exit. We thought we could do the same.
We found an even better solution. About 100 ft further East was S Yellowstone Hwy, must be the predecessor of US-20. One car was parked right at the corner of Smith Road and S Yellowstone Hwy, and its occupants settled in 4 lounge chairs to watch the eclipse.
We parked further up in front of them under a couple of nice shady trees. That happened to be "Grandma's place B&B" that someone had rented for his extended family for viewing eclipse. He was pacing around waiting for the event. It turned out that he had worked at several National Parks in California, as well as at Yellowstone. After a short chitchat, he suggested that we could set up our cameras in his driveway if need be. We didn't need to.
We had plenty of time to get ready for the eclipse - Solar eclipse viewing glasses for ourselves, one to tape over cell phone to take pictures, setting up camcorder on a tripod for hands free operation, and get some snacks ready. Temperature was mild 68 degrees throughout. And most importantly, there was not even a spec of cloud in the entire sky.
The eclipse times at Thornton were as follows:
Per https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21, eclipse would begin (C1) at top right of the sun at 10:15 am, Diamond rings would appear at 11:33 am on bottom left and again at right at 11:35 am - with totality in between for 2 minutes and 18 seconds. Eclipse would end at 12:58 PM.
First few minutes after 10:15 am were spent wondering whether we actually were seeing the moon cover the sun, or was it just our imagination. OR, whether the eclipse was cancelled for some reason ;-)
Then we saw it. We took pictures at 15-20 minute intervals to show the progression of the eclipse. Still there was plenty of time - over 75 minutes - before totality. Sure enough, an enterprising Ice Cream truck, playing familiar tunes, appeared. Not having anything better to do but wait, people flocked over and made his day.
Speaking of people, there were 8-10 cars under the bridge. Another 5-6 cars in the parking lot 100 feet to the north of us, and just as many 200 feet to the south. Vast open potato fields (what else would you expect?) hoped to make lots of money off the thousands who were coming here to watch the eclipse. Well, that was not to be. "Excellent Eclipse Viewing $5" cardboard signs hung uselessly.
Being the first ever total eclipse, our plan was to just live through the experience and not spend too much time trying to capture them in photos. During totality (also just before and after), I was going to let the camcorder run the entire 2-3 minutes, which I did.
Until totality, the experience was no different than anywhere else in the U.S., just like I had experienced in 2012 partial eclipse. As the eclipse approached totality, everything changed. At 75%, we started noticing that light was dimming although it was still full sunshine. Dogs started barking as we got closer to totality. We still needed eclipse glasses to look at the sun all the way until totality.
As the sliver of sun got thinner and thinner, the sky darkened a bit, and the light around took on a weird, "clearer" quality. Everything seemed sharper and clearer, though darker. It's kind of like if you were squinting, and everything seemed much clearer to you.
We were told that the wind would pick up a bit, and the temperature drop noticeably. We didn't notice.
In the end, there was a flash (diamond ring) before it became dark. So much so that we could only see silhouettes of each other only a couple of feet away. There was twilight orange of a sunset, all the way around the whole horizon! The moon having completely blocked the sun, corona was now shining brightly - even more brightly than just prior to totality. Only when zoomed in, we could see the dark circle at the center with bright corona much larger in size than the sun and three distinct solar flairs coming out - two on top and one at the bottom.
Over two minutes is a long enough time to experience everything that was going on around us. People cheering, dogs barking, us taking pictures during the totality - all of it. Then, just like that, the corona dimmed, the diamond ring flashed into view on the right side of the Sun's disk - time to put viewing glasses back on. The show was over.
After Totality is the most anticlimactic feeling a person can have. In under two hours, it had built up so much by the events that have overtaken your senses, and experienced a hundred-second amazement with a few others around you in eclipsedom, while the Moon now marched on across the face of the Sun.
The views of the waxing crescent Sun that was still there for the viewing seemed silly, and like everyone else, we were ready to move on. The best pictures before, during and after will available on the news for everyone who did not come with us. But those pictures won't do justice to the memory of our most perfect view of a total eclipse.
There was hardly any traffic during the eclipse even on US-20. Even the Ice Cream truck was parked quietly as Totality approached. Only one semi truck parked around the corner decided to rev up its engines and drove away as Totality hit. (Apparently, ID had banned trucks from highways this morning until the eclipse.) Obviously, this truck wanted to beat the traffic jam afterwards.
Within minutes after Totality, everyone had packed up and were leaving. Luckily for us, most were driving south to Idaho Falls, and very few going north to Yellowstone, like us. Later on, I saw the entire stretch from Rexburg to Idaho Falls to Pocatello solid red on the traffic map.
Further north, we saw some cars, not in the path of Totality, parked at the turnouts on US-20 and still watching the eclipse. It would be completely over by the time we reached Yellowstone, but it was definitely an experience to cherish and we were glad it went without a hitch!
Our plan was to stay safe distance away from crazy hotel prices in the path of totality while avoiding traffic jams, and then to drive up to a spot on the line of totality depending on the weather and traffic conditions that day. Ideal and most convenient place would be just below Rexburg, ID on US-20 on the way to Yellowstone, some 82 miles away. Alternative plan was to continue on I-15N to someplace north of Roberts, ID.
We checked the weather the night before. It was clear everywhere near Rexburg. Without traffic, this 200+ mile trip from our hotel in Layton, UT - just north of Salt Lake City (SLC), would take nearly 3 hours. I-15 has posted speed limits of 70-75-80 mph, making the trip shorter. The question was how bad will the traffic be on Monday August 21 - no one knew.
Coming up to SLC on Sunday August 20, freeway signs warned drivers to expect traffic delays and to plan accordingly. At the hotel, a couple of guys from San Diego had the same idea as ours. However, they expected heavy traffic next morning and planned to leave at 5 am and go directly to Roberts - anticipating unmanageable crowds at Rexburg (pop. 50K.)
Local media and governments had predicted (who knows how!) that Idaho Falls (pop. 135K) would get 100K visitors pouring in to watch the eclipse. This entire area was expecting 250K visitors. Had that materialized, it would have overwhelmed the entire system - freeways, hotels, restaurants and stores. In reality, none of that happened - I guess they scared people away with their wild estimates.
My own rationale was that EVEN IF so many people were to converge to this area, most will come ahead of time, spend the weekend visiting Yellowstone (they did.) or relax. In any case, they will not be on the roads Monday morning - except for those day trippers coming from SLC, the only large city South of the path of totality in Idaho. Because schools had just started - or were starting shortly - anyone with school age children were unlikely to venture out here.
Sure enough, on Monday morning, the traffic was clear the entire way through - except for brief slowdowns here and there. Given that US-20 beyond Idaho Falls was also clear for the next 20 miles, we decided to drive to our preferred spot - Exit 332 Thornton, one exit before Rexburg. We left at 7 am and reached Thornton around 10 am. The normal traffic must be so sparse that even with the few additional cars - most with UT license plates, very few others - did not cause delays. (Truck traffic was banned that morning.)
At Exit 332, we saw some cars parked in the shady underpass, with people hanging around for the eclipse to commence. Railroad tracks ran parallel to US-20 - about 100 ft away to the East. We had seen people standing on the tracks to watch the eclipse at the previous exit. We thought we could do the same.
We found an even better solution. About 100 ft further East was S Yellowstone Hwy, must be the predecessor of US-20. One car was parked right at the corner of Smith Road and S Yellowstone Hwy, and its occupants settled in 4 lounge chairs to watch the eclipse.
 |
| Our viewing spot - Thornton, ID |
We had plenty of time to get ready for the eclipse - Solar eclipse viewing glasses for ourselves, one to tape over cell phone to take pictures, setting up camcorder on a tripod for hands free operation, and get some snacks ready. Temperature was mild 68 degrees throughout. And most importantly, there was not even a spec of cloud in the entire sky.
Per https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21, eclipse would begin (C1) at top right of the sun at 10:15 am, Diamond rings would appear at 11:33 am on bottom left and again at right at 11:35 am - with totality in between for 2 minutes and 18 seconds. Eclipse would end at 12:58 PM.
 |
| Eclipse starts (C1) at 10:15 am MT |
Then we saw it. We took pictures at 15-20 minute intervals to show the progression of the eclipse. Still there was plenty of time - over 75 minutes - before totality. Sure enough, an enterprising Ice Cream truck, playing familiar tunes, appeared. Not having anything better to do but wait, people flocked over and made his day.
Speaking of people, there were 8-10 cars under the bridge. Another 5-6 cars in the parking lot 100 feet to the north of us, and just as many 200 feet to the south. Vast open potato fields (what else would you expect?) hoped to make lots of money off the thousands who were coming here to watch the eclipse. Well, that was not to be. "Excellent Eclipse Viewing $5" cardboard signs hung uselessly.
Being the first ever total eclipse, our plan was to just live through the experience and not spend too much time trying to capture them in photos. During totality (also just before and after), I was going to let the camcorder run the entire 2-3 minutes, which I did.
Until totality, the experience was no different than anywhere else in the U.S., just like I had experienced in 2012 partial eclipse. As the eclipse approached totality, everything changed. At 75%, we started noticing that light was dimming although it was still full sunshine. Dogs started barking as we got closer to totality. We still needed eclipse glasses to look at the sun all the way until totality.
As the sliver of sun got thinner and thinner, the sky darkened a bit, and the light around took on a weird, "clearer" quality. Everything seemed sharper and clearer, though darker. It's kind of like if you were squinting, and everything seemed much clearer to you.
We were told that the wind would pick up a bit, and the temperature drop noticeably. We didn't notice.
 |
| Totality begins (C2) at 11:33 am MT |
 |
| Totality until 11:35 am MT |
 |
| Our picture |
After Totality is the most anticlimactic feeling a person can have. In under two hours, it had built up so much by the events that have overtaken your senses, and experienced a hundred-second amazement with a few others around you in eclipsedom, while the Moon now marched on across the face of the Sun.
The views of the waxing crescent Sun that was still there for the viewing seemed silly, and like everyone else, we were ready to move on. The best pictures before, during and after will available on the news for everyone who did not come with us. But those pictures won't do justice to the memory of our most perfect view of a total eclipse.
There was hardly any traffic during the eclipse even on US-20. Even the Ice Cream truck was parked quietly as Totality approached. Only one semi truck parked around the corner decided to rev up its engines and drove away as Totality hit. (Apparently, ID had banned trucks from highways this morning until the eclipse.) Obviously, this truck wanted to beat the traffic jam afterwards.
Within minutes after Totality, everyone had packed up and were leaving. Luckily for us, most were driving south to Idaho Falls, and very few going north to Yellowstone, like us. Later on, I saw the entire stretch from Rexburg to Idaho Falls to Pocatello solid red on the traffic map.
Further north, we saw some cars, not in the path of Totality, parked at the turnouts on US-20 and still watching the eclipse. It would be completely over by the time we reached Yellowstone, but it was definitely an experience to cherish and we were glad it went without a hitch!
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