Idaho Spuds

We headed straight out of Utah and right into Idaho where there literally are fields and fields and fields of potatoes. And of course, with all of those potatoes we had to try Idaho Spuds for ourselves. They’re delicious.

Our first day in Idaho we drove to Atomic City where the country’s first fatal nuclear blast took place in 1961. Have you ever seen Dark Tourist on Netflix? Will and I love these kind of dark tourism places and obviously had to check this place out since we were so close by. The small area of Atomic City is really small and there’s not much there aside from a VFD and a few homes. A few miles down the road though is the EBR-1 Museum, the Experimental Breeder Reactor Museum, so of course we had to stop in here too.

The EBR-1 was the world’s first nuclear power plant and usable electricity was first generated from nuclear energy here in 1951. It’s also the only place in America where you can see four nuclear reactors. The “dark tourism” piece comes in because the reactor at EBR-1 suffered a partial nuclear meltdown in 1955. The museum was closed for COVID-19 when we were there, but we still got to walk around and look at some things outside.

By early afternoon we had made it to our campground in Arco, ID and were able to drop the trailers and take a short drive to Craters of the Moon National Monument. Parts of this area truly do make you feel like you are on another planet. The sun seems to shine hotter and brighter, the lava flow covering the ground creates an image similar to hills and craters and the black power/dirt covering the ground is hard and sparkles in the sunlight. We would definitely recommend coming here for a visit or a day trip, but the campgrounds are hot, dry, and very dusty. We were thankful for our site back in town.

The next morning, we all set off towards Boise to restock on groceries before heading back into national forest to do some dispersed camping for a few days. We finally found a really idyllic spot right on the river in Lowman, ID. We had hoped to be able to camp near the hot springs so that we could easily walk over to enjoy them, but due to COVID, all of the campsites and the hot springs themselves were closed up.

Our dispersed site a few miles down the road was perfect though. We had quite a big spot of land that would fit both of the campers and a view overlooking the river and the rising mountains. Instead of the relaxing in the hot springs we all decided to brave the river. It was cold. Like super cold. Coldest water we’ve been in so far, but it was nice to sit by and just enjoy the water from our chairs.

We stayed at this site for four nights, I believe and had some really beautiful days and some really rainy and cold days. The stars were also magical here. Since we’ve been living in Greenville (10 years) we haven’t been able to see very many stars, so this area was a little mesmerizing. I could’ve stood out in the middle of that campsite and stared up at the sky for hours.

I also can’t express how confusing it is to be this far North in the country with the timing of the sun/moon. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that’s had odd daylight hours, so this experience has taken a little getting used to. It really didn’t get dark until about 10:30 or maybe even 11:00 and then it would start getting light again by 4:30 AM. It messed us up a little in that we were trying to use the setting of the sun as our indication to head to bed or get up. Wasn’t always helpful. All I could think about though was how glorious it must be to be a child here in the summertime. It stays light outside for so, so long which means so much more time to stay outside.

After leaving the dispersed camping area near Lowman, ID we split ways with my parents while they headed back towards Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and we continued North to a small state park in Lewiston, ID for two nights before making our way to Bonner’s Ferry, ID.

We didn’t get up to much over these few days but enjoyed a bit of downtime. In Lewiston we went out to dinner where no matter what you ordered, they brought you a small plate of spaghetti to start the meal. It was different, but we both really enjoyed that spaghetti. In Bonner’s Ferry we took a hotel night and were able to do laundry and do our planning for the next two weeks that we would spend in Montana.

I’ve struggled a bit with not being able to do CA, OR, and WA, but I’m so glad that we were able to spend this time in Idaho. I don’t think our original plan even had us going into to ID at all, but our time here has been really great. This is an incredible state with lots of places to explore.

Still trucking along. In the right lane,

Rachel