Day 18 - Craters Of The Moon - Wed. July 2nd, 2025

 Last evening, I took the boys to the trout pond we found the night before and they quickly caught a few. Liz took the girls to the nearby river to splash around a bit.











Wednesday was another travel day for us, and we prepared to bid Idaho goodbye. We visited the complimentary dump station in Ketchum, which was provided by an RV grant from Uncle Sam. I haven’t written much about the nuts and bolts of this type of thing, but the importance of a suitable dump station cannot be understated. While all are similar, they are almost never created equal. Some have faulty hose nozzles. Others have short hoses that barely reach the inflow/outflow. Some have wonderful spring extention arms that provide for a gravity assisted downward flow of water through the hose. It’s the little things. The best dump stations are the free ones, and we were happy to find one in Hailey. Since there was no-one lined up behind us, we all took showers and refreshed ourselves for the day. While the rest of the family showered one by one, I took the van to a small garage to get the oil changed. The friendly woman there told me a bit about the town and how Arnold Swartzenegger would often be seen riding around in his Hummer. (He has a home there.)  Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were other notable celebrities seen around town from time to time. Speaking of, I never did get a chance to visit Hemmingway’s grave back in Ketchum. Apparently its a very modest, flat, unremarkable stone that’s easily missed. 

We made a quick stop at Craters Of The Moon National Monument, which had a nice little visitors center where you can learn about the volcanic rock left behind from lava bubbling up through the ground 2,000 years ago. 










It’s amazing how anything can grow in this craggy environment.



Argo, Idaho. The first city to be powered by Atomic energy from a nearby nuclear reactor in the 60’s. That only lasted for an hour, but when your only other claim to fame is a bunch of random numbers painted on a steep hillside overlooking downtown, you tend to play it up.







Stunning views, accompanied by a unique scent of a particular kind of pine tree greeted us as we rolled into Jackson, Wyoming.


Didn’t stop here, but don’t think I didn’t want to.



We just skirted the National Elk Refuge but didn’t see any elk. Maybe tomorrow. We drove up a dirt road for a mile or two to some dispersed campsites we had researched and found a nice empty site in a small meadow. With rain coming on, something we hadn’t seen since leaving Ohio, we spent the rest of the evening in the camper. The mosquitoes here are numerous and relentless. Every time we open the door, a dozen or are ready to make their break for the great indoors.  













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 4 - Arriving at Zion - Wed, June 18

Image
 Today was a roaster. Blisteringly hot in Moab and only slightly cooler near St George. After 6 hours on the road getting there, we were rewarded with a nice dispersed camping site on public land, with incredible views. The temperature however, did not give any relief as it was well over 100 degrees. The generator continued to get a healthy workout, even though the AC could barely keep up.  Liz and kids went off to the nearby Virgin River to try to get cooled down. I stayed back and got a lot of work done that had come in through out the day. Now, the stars are out and I’ve already seen a few shooting across the relatively dark sky.  Tommorow, we’ll get up and go into Zion National Park, before the heat reaches its peak. Luckily, a campsite opened up tonight in the park for tommorow night, so we jumped on reserving that. It will be right on the river, which will at least provide some relief from tbe heat. 
Read more