Idaho Falls is only about 3 hours from Twin Falls, and we arrived at the Snake River RV Resort and Campground around 1:30. A classy name for an ordinary campground :-) After lunch our first stop was the Visitor's Center to get information on things to do and see in the area.
Our first excursion was to Craters of the Moon National Monument which is about 70 miles NW of Idaho Falls. Not much to see between Idaho Falls and the Monument. We went through the little town of Arco, which was the first town in the US to have electricity powered by nuclear energy....even if it was only for about 30 minutes! The lava flows and features of the Craters are thousands of years old and are easily damaged by off-trail travel. The site has a 7-mile driving loop with several stops where various features of the lava can be witnessed. They have put down a tar trail over the lava, to protect visitors and the lava. It's very rough terrain, and long pants and sturdy shoes are strongly recommended. I'm glad we were there on a cool day (75 degrees), as during the heat of the summer, the black lava can reach 150 degrees! NASA's Apollo Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Eugene Cernan and Joe Engle learned basic volcanic geology at Craters in 1969 as they prepared for their moon mission.
On our way back to Idaho Falls we stopped at EBR-1 National Historic Landmark. EBR stands for Experimental Breeder Reactor-1. It generated the world's first usable amount of electricity from nuclear energy in December 1951. Here we saw nuclear reactors, a control room, remote handling devices for radioactive materials, radiation detection equipment and 2 aircraft nuclear propulsion prototypes. Since 1951, the National Reactor Testing Station (now known as Dept. of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory has designed and built more than 50 other pioneering nuclear reactors.
Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, and I bought more cherries....the last of the season. After lunch we went to the Museum of Idaho and spent the afternoon learning about the history of the area, and marveling at the King Tut exhibition that was also going on there.
Sunday we drove 60 miles to Pocatello to visit the Bannock County Historical Museum and the Fort Hall Replica, a 19th century fort. The museum was very well done and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The Fort was not open, as the person in charge was in the hospital, and since it was Labor Day weekend, no one was available to take his place. We stopped at the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Museum in the town of Fort Hall, but that was also closed, and appeared to have been closed for a long time.
Labor Day we stayed in camp and labored. Jack cleaned the inside of the truck, washed the windows of the trailer and I cleaned mirrors, counters, vacuumed the bedroom and kitchen.
On Tuesday the price of diesel jumped from $4.269 to $4.369. Ouch! We drove to Blackfoot, ID and visited the Potato Museum where we learned all about growing and grading potatoes. The SE State Fair was also going on, so we walked to the fairgrounds and enjoyed our second Idaho fair. This one was much bigger than the one in Boise. We explored every building with the exception of the animal barns! Great fun!
Wednesday, Sept. 5 was a long travel day to Butte, MT.
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