Craters and Taters

09/17/2023 – 09/24/2023

We are starting our journey back east to North Carolina and on to Florida for winter. Our route this year will take us through Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Arco, ID will be homebase for the week while we check out Craters of the Moon National Monument, The Idaho Potato Museum and Land of the Yankee Fork State Park.

“See-Ya Later”

Good-byes are never easy, are they? We took the gang out for birthday dinners at Screen Door and then gathered the next morning at Christopher’s for breakfast. One special person was missing…Weston. He was on a weekend trip with his grandma so we took him out for some ice cream before they left. Couldn’t leave town without saying see-ya later alligator to this little guy.  

Everything is all packed up and now it is time for the last hugs… hugs that are going to have to last for 3 months! Jefferey & Jess took off to the movies and Chris took off to Oktoberfest with some of his friends. Are they going to miss us? I’m sure going to miss them.

On the Road Again

I always hear Willie in my head when we get ready to take off on a trip. I-84 is our route out of town and we will be overnighting on some BLM land outside Ontario OR along the Snake River. I never get tired of driving through the Columbia River Gorge and Blue Mountains.

As we made our way through Pendleton, Deadman’s Pass loomed in front of us. How will Theo do pulling the truck up this steep grade? The truck weighs a little more than the jeep and she always struggles pulling hills. Well… she did pretty good. Our speed was only 25MPH and the engine temps reached 239° but she did it! After that it was all downhill (mostly) to our camp spot along the Snake River.

While we were exiting the freeway I said to Bill, “Did you know that was the Snake River? And did you know that was Idaho on the other side?” He didn’t believe me and I didn’t believe it either. I noticed it when I was seeking out campsites for our overnight stop on a map. All these years driving along I-84 in eastern Oregon, we had no clue what river that was and always thought it was Oregon on the other side.

Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge is a great overnight spot. It is a short 3-mile ride from the freeway with nice views of the river and rolling hills. We got a peaceful nights sleep and were fresh for the rest of our journey.

Arco, ID

Idaho is finally going to get checked off the map. We have travelled through the state several times and even stayed overnight a time or two. But the rule is, we MUST stay at least one night (check) and we MUST do an activity (not checked).

Mountain View RV Park and Café is home for the week. It is centrally located between the three places we want to visit this week. This is a great little park with nice views of the Lost River Range. When I walked into the office to check in, I could smell something being prepared in the kitchen that was making my mouth water. The couple that own the park also run a BBQ café. We returned later in the week for a delicious meal of pulled pork and smoked baked potatoes. It tasted as good as it smelled!

Craters of the Moon National Monument

When you are driving across Idaho’s Snake River Plain it is hard to believe you are seeing these enormous lava fields. Where did the lava come from? There is no volcano here. It came from a series of deep fissures known as The Great Rift. These eruptions date back to 2,100-15,000 years and the rift was once part of the Yellowstone Hot Spot.

Craters of the Moon National Monument is about 20 minutes from camp and since the park isn’t very large, we were able to see it in a couple of hours. We drove the 7-mile scenic loop, stopped at several of the overlooks and hiked out to see some tree molds. We bypassed the cave area since daylight was waning and we’ve seen lava tubes before.

Inferno Cone

The Inferno Cone is one of the world’s largest basaltic cinder cones and there is a quick 2/10 mile hike to the top. I asked Bill if he wanted to take the short walk up there. He looked out the window and quickly said, “No!” Aw, come on, we can do this. It is only a 164’ elevation gain with a max 28% grade. Oh and did I mention we were at 6000’?

We get out of the truck and make our way to the top of the cone. The views from the top are outstanding but it is VERY windy and our lungs are burning from the walk up. We both spent the rest of the day coughing and struggled to get a good deep breath. But… WE DID IT!

Spatter Cones

Next on the loop are a couple of spatter cones. A spatter cone is a small, steep-sided volcanic cone built up around a vent where escaping gases blow out chunks of molten lava. A short trail leads out to these little volcanoes and we were able to look straight down into the vents. WOW!

Tree Molds

Our last stop in the park is the Tree Molds Trail, a 2-mile round trip hike through some limber pines, along a lava flow and out to some tree molds. Portions of the trail made us feel like we were back in Hawaii. Across from the sea of lava are mountains that could easily be Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. But they are not. We are not in Hawaii…We are in Idaho! Finally making it out to the tree molds, we are a little let down by what awaited us.

Tree molds are created when hot lava flow runs into a tree. The water in the tree cools the lava enough to make an imprint. It’s pretty neat but this display was a little underwhelming. (The ones in Hawaii are far more impressive. 😉)

Craters of the Moon National Monument is “otherworldly”. If you are in the area, it is definitely worth a couple hours of your time.

Taters!!!

When you hear “Idaho” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it potatoes? Idaho is the Potato Capital of the World! Approximately 300,000 acres of potatoes are harvested here each year. That harvest yields 13 billion pounds of potatoes. 13 BILLION pounds of potatoes!

Today we drove to Blackfoot ID to visit the Idaho Potato Museum. This is a nice little museum located in the old train depot. Everything you want to know about potatoes can be learned here.

Idaho’s potatoes are grown in the Snake River Valley. The Eastern Snake River Plain aquifer is one of the largest in the world. The aquifer contains an estimated billion-acre feet of water or about as much water as Lake Erie. All this water, combined with the rich volcanic soil and Idaho’s hot summer days and cool nights make perfect growing conditions for the potato.

The Displays

We enjoyed walking through the museum, learning all about the potato industry and seeing the “World’s Largest Potato Crisp.” There was even a VR (Virtual Reality) station that allowed us to climb aboard a huge tractor and harvest some potatoes. It was like we were right there! They also had a poster of Marilyn in a potato sack and multiple potato heads. And have you ever heard of Baked Potato Nails? These were used to accelerate a potato baking in the oven before microwaves. Are you team “baking in the oven” or “nuking in the microwave”?

Oh, and how could I forget this… there was a letter from the Idaho governor to Dan Quayle explaining there is no “e” in potato with a post script saying there is also no “e” in Idaho. In return, Dan Quayle sent him an autographed potato. That’s funny right there!

Snack Time

The museum ends at the Potato Station Café. How can you not stop for some fresh potato goodies? You can’t. We enjoyed a loaded, and I mean loaded, baked potato and some fresh cut fries. Yum Yum! What is your favorite way to eat potatoes? Let me know in the comments!

The price of admission to the museum includes a coupon for free taters. Their slogan is, “Free Taters for Out of Staters!” I love it! Of course, we had to go to the local grocer and get our bag. We each got a coupon, but it would take us months to eat 10 pounds of potatoes. Let me take that back… I could probably eat 10 pounds of potatoes in a month. I love mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, scalloped potatoes, hash browns, French fries… the list goes on and on. My waistline, on the other hand, thinks it would be a bad idea. LOL

I’ll leave you with a few potato facts:

Arco, EBR-I and Nuclear Energy

Located just outside Arco is the birthplace of Nuclear Power. The Experimental Breeder Reactor-I is now a National Historic Landmark and offers free self-guided tours from Memorial Day through Labor Day. We were out of luck as we were 2 weeks late. In 1949 the National Reactor Testing station, now the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), was created. In 1951 EBR-I generated the first electricity from nuclear energy and would change how electric power would be generated for generations to come. Then on July 17, 1955, Arco made history, when it became the first city in the world to be powered solely with nuclear energy. Interesting.

Today the INL is working to improve nuclear power plants and new ways to use nuclear energy for more than electricity.

The Land of Yankee Fork

Our full day of sight-seeing is going to take us north about 80 miles to the city of Challis and The Land of Yankee Fork State Park. When I was searching for places to visit in Central Idaho, I was checking out some scenic drives and stumbled across the Land of Yankee Fork State Park. The interpretive center is in Challis but what grabbed my attention was a drive through this historic area up in the hills that allowed you to visit the ghost towns of Idaho’s frontier mining era.

After coffee and a quick breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed north on US-93 which is known as the Craters to Peaks scenic by-way. It was a gorgeous drive along the foothills of the Lost River Mountain range. We had two days of rain, which dusted the peaks of the mountains with a light covering of snow.

Interpretive Center

We stopped at the Interpretive Center and chatted with the ranger. She loaded us up with a map of the Custer Motorway Adventure Road and some self-guided tours of the ghost towns. The ranger suggested we go to the ghost town of Bayhorse first. Today was the last day it would be open and she felt if we did the driving tour first, we would not make it to this ghost town before it closed. Before heading out, though, we watched a short movie on the history of Yankee Fork and took a quick walk through the museum. The museum had a lot of artifacts from the mining towns and provided a good feel for what life would have been like back then.

Bayhorse

Bayhorse is the most intact of the ghost towns and is located in a little canyon just off US-75. The Bayhorse mines produced silver, copper and lead and prospered from about 1882 until the late 1890s. During its heyday the population was between 300-500 people.

On site is the largest, intact, mill standing today. The 1882 Gilmer and Salisbury Mill used gravity to move rock through the mill and water to wash the rock through the millworks.

It was fascinating walking the streets of this old town and thinking about what life was like back then.

Custer Motorway Adventure Road

The Custer Motorway Adventure Road is a 25-mile narrow, dirt road that was once the only means of getting supplies and people to and from the mining towns of Custer and Bonanza. It was a toll road and had many stations along the way to accommodate travelers as well as barns for the teams of horses.

Since we were starting the road in reverse order, we drove 37 miles to Sunbeam and began our tour there. We first passed the ghost town of Bonanza and there was nothing there, in fact, we were not even sure where the town really was. We followed a sign up to the cemetery and found several graves marked with wooden tombstones surrounded by rickety picket fences.

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

It wasn’t long after the non-existent town of Bonanza that we came upon a huge dredge. The Yankee Fork Gold dredge was built in 1940 and dug its way 5-miles up the Yankee Fork. It operated until 1942 and was then shut down during WWII. It began mining again in 1945 and operated until 1952.

During its operation, the dredge recovered approximately $1,037,000 in gold and silver at a cost of $1,076,100. Guess they didn’t make much money, did they? The dredge was closed for the season but we were able to walk around it.

Custer City

Just past the dredge is the ghost town of Custer. In 1875 gold deposits were found in the mountains of Yankee Fork and the richest claim was discovered in 1876. Custer quickly became the hub for the increasing activity in Yankee Fork and by 1896 it became the business and social center with a population of over 600. As quickly as the town prospered, hardships came, gold ran out and by 1910 the post office was removed and Custer became a ghost town.

We spent about 15 minutes walking around the town, once again picturing what life would have been like in those times. Daylight is slipping away and we have about 25 miles of gravel road to complete before it gets dark.

Tollgate Station

The journey continued through the hills as we slowly made our way back to Challis, much like it did for those stage lines almost 150 years ago. As we came down off the Mill Creek Summit we passed the old Tollgate Station.

The Tollgate Station was operated by a husband and wife. They worked the station year-round for 9 years. It included a bunkhouse, corrals and a large house. According to the informational placard at the site, the toll rates for one wagon and one span of animals was $4.00. Each additional span of animals was $1.00. I had to laugh at that. Wouldn’t that be the equivalent of today’s tolls? $4.00 for your car and $1.00 for each additional axle? 😊

An hour later we finally made it back to Challis, picked up the Craters to Peaks byway again and headed back to Arco. The Land of Yankee Fork is a great way to spend the day. If time had allowed I would have liked to continue the loop around the Sawtooths and through Sun Valley. We’ll have to save that for another time. It’s time to get the rig ready to roll.

What’s Next?

A week in the Grand Tetons with a side trip to Yellowstone. It has been 16 years since we have been to Yellowstone and we only drove through Grand Teton National Park. I am looking forward to finally spending some time exploring Jackson Hole and gazing at these rugged peaks.