Day 9 - Tuesday, Sept 11 - Idaho Falls, ID -
Starting mileage: 2830 Starting time: 10:00 am
Ending mileage: 3099 Ending time: 6:00 pm
Travel mileage: 269 Travel time: 8:00 hours
We can't help thinking of the tragedy that occurred 17 years ago today, where we were and how we felt.😧 I was at a conference in Rome, Italy when this was announced during a session after lunch.
We had a semi-relaxing morning as I was doing some work in the room and we didn't leave until 10am.
We stopped at the river-walk park along the Snake River just below the long dam that is used to retain water for the city hydroelectric plants. The falls were not quite the same after the construction of the dam but it is still attractive to see water spilling over the dam and the rapids over the rocks below. The Idaho Falls municipal utility generates almost half of the city electrical needs at a much lower cost.
We headed west towards Boise through the Snake River Plains. These are very fertile when irrigated and are responsible for the famous Idaho Russet potatoes as well as sugar beets, wheat, corn and hay. Where it is not irrigated, it is grassy with sage brush, much as in Wyoming. In the slightly higher rolling areas, one can see the ancient and not so ancient signs of volcanic activity with lava boulders and lava outcroppings - one sees this most of the 250 mile distance between Idaho Falls and Boise.
We passed the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and would have liked to stop in the museum but it was closed for the season. Nuclear reactor research has been done here by INL since the 1940s and over 50 different nuclear reactors have been built to test different designs. Only 3 are currently active. INL is near the appropriately named Atomic City.
We wanted to stop again at the Craters of the Moon National Monument which we had visited with the girls about 15 years ago. The visitor center has been renovated since then and had interesting videos about lava and the history of the volcanic activity here. (We were surprised that a large poster about climate change hadn't been removed given the current administration). The last lava eruption here was only 2100 years ago, very recent in geologic terms, and this area was still very barren. Other eruptions had occurred about every 2000 years for the past 10,000 years and nature has started to take over with pine trees, grasses and flowers starting to fill in.
A major accident with a tractor trailer on I-84 on the way to Boise was causing a backup of an hour according to Google Maps but by the time we got there, it was only about a 15 minute delay. Huge tow trucks were trying to get it back on the roadway.
We are using my "loyalty" points to stay at a Comfort Inn here.
Ending mileage: 3099 Ending time: 6:00 pm
Travel mileage: 269 Travel time: 8:00 hours
We can't help thinking of the tragedy that occurred 17 years ago today, where we were and how we felt.😧 I was at a conference in Rome, Italy when this was announced during a session after lunch.
We had a semi-relaxing morning as I was doing some work in the room and we didn't leave until 10am.
We stopped at the river-walk park along the Snake River just below the long dam that is used to retain water for the city hydroelectric plants. The falls were not quite the same after the construction of the dam but it is still attractive to see water spilling over the dam and the rapids over the rocks below. The Idaho Falls municipal utility generates almost half of the city electrical needs at a much lower cost.
We headed west towards Boise through the Snake River Plains. These are very fertile when irrigated and are responsible for the famous Idaho Russet potatoes as well as sugar beets, wheat, corn and hay. Where it is not irrigated, it is grassy with sage brush, much as in Wyoming. In the slightly higher rolling areas, one can see the ancient and not so ancient signs of volcanic activity with lava boulders and lava outcroppings - one sees this most of the 250 mile distance between Idaho Falls and Boise.
We passed the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and would have liked to stop in the museum but it was closed for the season. Nuclear reactor research has been done here by INL since the 1940s and over 50 different nuclear reactors have been built to test different designs. Only 3 are currently active. INL is near the appropriately named Atomic City.
We wanted to stop again at the Craters of the Moon National Monument which we had visited with the girls about 15 years ago. The visitor center has been renovated since then and had interesting videos about lava and the history of the volcanic activity here. (We were surprised that a large poster about climate change hadn't been removed given the current administration). The last lava eruption here was only 2100 years ago, very recent in geologic terms, and this area was still very barren. Other eruptions had occurred about every 2000 years for the past 10,000 years and nature has started to take over with pine trees, grasses and flowers starting to fill in.
A major accident with a tractor trailer on I-84 on the way to Boise was causing a backup of an hour according to Google Maps but by the time we got there, it was only about a 15 minute delay. Huge tow trucks were trying to get it back on the roadway.
We are using my "loyalty" points to stay at a Comfort Inn here.
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| Day 9 map |
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| Idaho Falls and Mormon Temple in background |
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| Recent lava formations |
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| Nature coming back |
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