1st Day in Idaho

 

June 10  Pocatello, ID

Since we well be here for a couple of days, we decided to go to the Craters of the Moon, just north of here.  Very interesting and good for us to say we have been there.  This is an area that was full of volcanic fissures about 2000 years ago.  And was an area was used by the astronauts back in the 1960’s to simulate what they anticipate to be like the moon’s surface.  It is amazing how little vegetation is growing on there now.








From there we had heard that there were old mine towns nearby to see.  Nearby is a relative term, it was about 50 miles of driving to see what ended up being a little disappointing.  There were no towns left and the remnants were rather dilapidated.   However, the location was really beautiful, high on the side of a mountain over looking the spectacular valley.  It had remnants of old towers


that used to transport the minerals from the top down.  There was also an old mine and a falling down building that service the mine.





Heading back we stopped in the town of Blackfoot.  It is the home of all things potatoes.  The Potato Museum


is there and as hokey as it sounds, was really a fun place to visit.  We left with two baked potatoes



for our evening meal, very acceptable YUM.  It is hard to believe that this county produces over 23% of all baked potatoes used in America.  The normal rainfall here is under 10” per year this makes it necessary to water consistently.  Some of the fields that we passed had massive center pivot irrigation systems.  Some of these were over 900 feet long.


  The water comes from a large aquafer created by the Snake River, that covers most of the southeastern part of Idaho.

I was told by my proofreader that she is tired and didn’t care about any errors contained above.

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