Exploring Idaho

Since we had a three day weekend we decided to go west to Idaho and see some of the sights that our co-workers told us about. On the way out of the park we drove a short loop off the main road called Firehole Lake Drive. All along this drive we saw geysers and hot spots. Here is the Great Fountain Geyser. It did not erupt when we were there.

This is White Dome Geyser. It also just had steam coming up from it.

Steady Geyser is just as its name suggests. It continuously erupts in a steady flow.

Firehole Lake is a beautiful steaming lake.  We are continuously amazed at the geyser basins and the variety of geysers and hot springs in each area.

We continued our trip out of Yellowstone Park, through West Yellowstone, MT, and into Idaho. We drove along the Mesa Falls scenic byway to Mesa Falls. We were able to go down stairs to a viewing platform where we could see the Upper Falls (114 ft) from just a few feet away. The sound and smell of the water rushing down was delightful.

 From all the moisture the hillside across from the falls was covered in moss. We enjoyed the spectacular views in the cool forest setting.

The lower falls, about a mile away, was smaller (65 ft), and we could not get as close to it. The Civilian Conservation Corp built the Grandview overlook in the 1930's which gave us this view. It was also a peaceful area.

We continued on our way southwest through the towns of Rexburg, Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, to our destination, the city of Pocatello. We chose this city because it was central to what we wanted to see and we could use our Choice Privileges points at a very nice Clarion Inn. All along the way we saw acres and acres and acres and acres of potato fields.

They have an interesting way of stacking their hay in Idaho. We saw many areas looking like this.

We enjoyed our stay at the Clarion Inn where they had an indoor pool and hot tub. Since we do not hav tv reception at Yellowstone we were delighted to catch up on the news and watch a good movie.       

On Sunday we traveled northwest to Craters of the Moon National Monument. About 15,000 years ago lava well up from long fissures in the Snake River, called the "Great Rift", to produce a vast ocean of rock. This 750,000 acre area has been preserved for viewing and exploring. At the visitor center we saw a film describing the early exploration of the area and heard a ranger explain the different kinds of rocks that we would see. Notice all the sagebrush around the area.

After checking out the exhibits at the visitor center we drove along the seven mile loop which took us through the various volcanic features of the park. It was very interesting to see so many different types of volcanic rock.

We hiked one of the trails which took us up close and personal to the lava beds.

It was amazing to see the blue and orange colors of some of the rocks.

There were hillsides covered in small white dwarf buckwheat flowers. We couldn't believe how they could grow our of the lava.

In another area there were hillsides with smooth textures rock.

There was a cave area at one of the stops where lave tubes could be seen. We were too late to meet up with the ranger who took a group into one of them, and we decided not to explore on our own. We were glad that we took the opportunity to visit this area of the state. It's like nothing we have ever seen before.

On our way back we stopped at EBR (Experimental Breeder Reactor) Atomic Museum which is located out in the middle of nowhere. In 1951 it became the first power plant in the world to produce usable electricity using atomic energy. A young man gave us a guided tour explaining each area and answering questions. It was very informative and interesting.

The next morning on our way back we stopped at the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, ID, the potato capital of the world. Since we had previously passed all the potato fields we thought it would be a good idea to learn about the lowly potato, Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about potatoes (or didn't want to know) was here. We saw how they originally planted and dug the potatoes by hand to the modern day machine processes. Of course there was a great big potato out front.

We saw the largest pringle ever made, and we even learned how the nickname "SPUD" came about.

We don't know why but our last name was painted on a John Deere potato cutter.

After our visit to the museum we took a different route back through more scenic areas of Idaho. We drove to Idaho Falls and followed the Snake River for a while to the Teton Scenic Byway which took us to Victor, ID. We then crossed the Teton Pass through the mountains to Jackson, WY and north through the Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone.

Pictures just do not capture the beauty that we saw all along the drive. Dan estimates we drove between 500 and 600 miles over the weekend. We feel blessed to be able to see this amazing area of the country.