Idaho
Didn’t push ourselves to get up too early, because we didn’t
have to drive too far in the day.
As we
were heading over to Carters of the Moon National Monument, we kept seeing
signs talking about atomic power, and advertising a museum.
Once we got to the place that looked like it
could be a museum, it didn’t look very inviting, but rather like a sinister
industrial complex way out in the middle of no where, with no directions as to
where the museum was.
So we turned back
and continued on.
Patti was able to Google
the place, and find out that the little town up the road, Arco, was the first
town in the “Free world” that was lighted by a nuclear powerful plant, in
1951.
Just as we were trying to confirm
this amazing fact that this had happened our here in the serious middle of
nowhere, we came by a restaurant Pickle’s Place advertising Atomic
Burgers.
It was too early to order one,
however.
Dick speculates that they put
our nationals’ first experimental nuclear reactor in such an isolated place
because they feared they might not be able to control the reaction, and there
was less out here to blow up.
Sorry we
didn’t get to tour the Experimental Breeder Reactor #1, but we did get to learn
this important fact and now share it with you.
Also, as we were driving we suddenly saw ten tractors each
pulling a hay bailer driving on the road.
When we asked about this at the Park visitor center, we were told a company
does designer alfalfa bailing, getting this really high quality alfalfa bailed
up and then it is shipped to Kentucky or Florida to feed racehorses.
Who knew!
The woman behind the counter had been caught by these coming the other direction
and it had been impossible to pass them as they came through a week ago.
So we ere lucky!
Craters of the Moon National Monument does look quite a bit
like a lunar landscape.
But we had seen
similar landscapes at Lava Bed’s National Monument and CA, and on the big Island
of Hawaii at Volcanoes National Park.
So
we knew what we were seeing.
It is still
quite eerie to driving along seeing regular looking farmland, and then suddenly
to be in the midst of miles and miles of dried up lava.
We appreciated the visitor’s center and had several
interesting exhibits and videos.
Then we
drove the scenic loop, stopping to take photos, and walk some of the
trails.
We scampered up to the top of a 160-foot
cinder dome where we could see 360 degrees around the park.
There were also caves one could visit, but because
we had within the past month visited another cave and didn’t have different
closed toed shoes to wear, we were excluded fro going to the caves due to the
concern about spreading white Nose Syndrome which is killing off millions of
bats.
The Park Service is working
diligently to try to avoid cross contamination, so we passed up the chance to
see the caves and lava tubes.
Today’s drives were mostly on scenic byways.
One called Peaks to Craters, and one called Thousand
Springs Scenic Byways.
So much more fun
than the free way.
One added theme that
came back in was we discovered that part of the Oregon Trail went through this area,
through the Crater of the Moon park, in fact.
We had a great time looking for the remains of this trail, where they
were trying to get the wagons around the lava.
Yipes, that would have ben really tricky!
The travelers reported leaving many parts of
their wagons along that stretch of the trial.
Then we drove on to Hagerman’s Fossil Beds; to see some more
fossils (here comes the dinosaur them again) and they also have the interpretive
information for another Japanese Internment camp, which is about 40 miles down
the road. Can you imagine out in the
middle of nowhere again! This time so far out of the way that it is where they
put an experimental nuclear reactor soon after the camps were closed.
We found the staff at the Hagerman Center to be informative
and delightful.
One had just finished her Master’s Degree in
Volcanology (volcanoes).
She was so
pleased to talk about the different National Parks that have volcanoes or a
volcanic history.
She also provided some information about
fossils, and why they were at this location.
This area was where the most prehistoric horses in the country were
found.
Actually, more like prehistoric
zebra.
We went out to to the area where
the fossils were dug, and it was truly beautiful, on a bluff overlooking the
Snake River. (This was the same river we floated on yesterday, only a couple
hundred miles away.
We also talked with another young Park Ranger about the
Minidoka Internship site, which we will visit tomorrow. She had the experience of growing up in one
of the former barracks buildings. Once
the camps were closed, buildings when up for public sale, often for very
cheap. She never realized the source of
her home until she got a job with the Park Service at that location.
Besides enjoying the fossils, and learning about the interment
camp, there was also another Oregon Trail Connection at this site.
We were able to walk a small portion of the original
trail, and could see other remnants of this trail.
We learned that by the time emigrants got to
this place, they had likely been walking for 1,300 miles.
Holy cow.
We then made a drive into Twin Fall, Idaho to spend the
night in another hotel (and take another shower…what a good invention)
"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."
Ernest Hemmingway
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