Total Solar Eclipse

August 21st, Idaho Falls, 11:33 a.m. totality

I debated whether or not to drive up to Idaho to get in the path of totality of the "Great American Eclipse." A month before, we thought we could take the whole family for the day, but as it got closer, we heard more and more about how much traffic there might be and how many crowds, and we decided not to go. Then, while DH, Joey, and Lillian had to work that day, I decided just two days before that I could drive up with many of the other kids for the day. Michael and Sarah chose to stay home, so I had just six kids with me.  We left before 6 a.m. on Monday and found that the traffic was pretty great almost all the way to Idaho Falls, where I had reached out to a Facebook friend, who invited us to her house to watch the eclipse. About 20 miles from Idaho Falls, the traffic was stop and go, but it still only took us 4 hours to go what would have been a 3 hour 40 minute trip without traffic. We got to my friend's house around 10, with the eclipse due to start around 10:20 and totality to be reached at 11:33.

Lots of cars headed towards Idaho Falls, but not nearly as many as would be heading back later in the day!

Every exit was full of cars and people setting up to watch the eclipse -- parked at gas stations, along the sides of the roads, and at rest stops.

I'm so glad we joined my friend Viki. I enjoyed getting to know her and her two sisters better, but it was my kids who really benefitted, because much of the eclipse was rather boring for them at first. They went in and out of the house, playing dominos with the other kids and jumping on the trampoline, and looking at the sun every so often with solar glasses.

Benji loved their dog!

The moon started to take little bites out of the sun:

Shadows got weird.

Even at 90% totality, when it was as dark as a few hours before dusk, shadows started to seem weird and it was noticeably cooler, the eclipse was mostly just a matter of curiosity among the kids. But a few minutes before 11:33, it started to get very, very interesting. The birds were chirping like crazy, and the temperature was dropping fast. My friend's husband was checking the temperature and found that in our location, it dropped 13 degrees! And it got very dark very fast as the moon raced to finally cover the sun. We were all very excited and rushing to take photos. Viki's family had a ton of solar glasses so I had borrowed one and cut it up to make a filter for my camera for the eclipse.

It actually worked very well!

To get the best reach, I brought my old camera, which has a crop sensor, and put on my 100-600mm lens. During totality, I took off the filter and got some amazing pictures of the "diamond ring," "Bailey's Beads" and the solar corona. It was amazing. I also had my best camera with a 24-70 lens so I could get pictures of the kids and the environment. My kids loved watching the sun and the place around us. It got dark enough to see Venus and all around us was a line of orange along the horizon, like the line at sunset but in every direction. It was beautiful.

Heading towards totality:

Solar Corona:

I created this animation of my various solar corona photos:

All too soon, it was over and the sun started peeking out from the other side:

My friend's daughter took this 360 degree panorama of what the sky looked like at the horizon. I have never seen anything like it.

And then the sun peeked out again, we put the glasses and filter back on, and had ice cream with our friends.




I left about 12:20, when the eclipse was still happening, hoping to get ahead of the crowds, but it was already bumper to bumper on the roads. Google maps didn't even send me on I-15, presumably because it was a parking lot, but we still moved along at what felt like a crawl. It took me an hour to get to Blackfoot (normally 30 minutes) on back roads and I-90, and then it was still stop and go until Pocatello. After Pocatello, it was still very crowded, but the freeway mostly moved along at between 50 and 70 mph. It took us 6 hours (instead of 3.5) to get home, which I thought was a lot, until I heard from friends who left later in the day. One friend said it took him 12 hours to get from Rexburg to Orem; another said it took 10 from Rexburg to Spanish Fork, with a 6 hour drive from Rexburg to Pocatello (normally 2). So, I guess my plan to beat the traffic worked out after all!

Did you get to see the eclipse?  Get caught in traffic?  What was your experience?