Idaho - Day 9 - Sun Valley, Ketchum, Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon/Arco KOA, Arco

Saturday, 9 July 2022

today's route

Before we left Twin Falls, I drove into town because I already knew where a grocery store was and that it was near a nice park where Dext could have one last walk before we hit the road.

We passed fields of corn, potatoes, some other vegie.  And cows and grazing land.

I passed farmers markets at Twin Falls, Jerome and Shoshone (pop. 1,461, per their sign).  And a few miles beyond Shoshone was the turn for Idaho Mammoth Cave.  They claim to be the world's largest volcanic cave open to the public.  I found conflicting info online about it, but it seems they provide propane lanterns and you do the rest: it's a self-guiding experience that includes a half-mile round trip walk into a volcanic cave.

Farther along was the turn for Shoshone Ice Caves, caves made of ice that were formed in a lava tube by underground eruptions.  They were discovered in the 1880s by a boy looking for a lost goat.  (No word on whether he found the goat.)

I've always understood the tribe's name was pronounced with 3 syllables - like show-SHOW-knee.  But according to multiple people I heard on the local radio stations, it's pronounced with 2 syllables - like show-SHOWN.  As they say, travel is broadening.

A highway sign said we were on the Sawtooth Scenic Byway.

Litter cleanup along this stretch of the road is sponsored by "The Real 3% of Idaho."  They seem to be an offshoot of the national 3%ers group (the national group wasn't fierce enough, I guess).  Apparently Facebook has banned several of these Idaho militia groups, and the 3%ers website wanted me to sign in before they'd tell me anything, so I still know only what I just wrote.  

Western Meadowlark

Farther along, the cleanup was sponsored by the "Sun Valley Women's Hockey Organization."  Quite the range of interests represented here.

At a rest area, I'm pretty sure I heard a meadowlark - one of my favorite songbirds.  The bird book says Western Meadowlarks live here year round.

Bellevue, the next town along, calls itself the "Gateway to the Sawtooths."  I looked them up and learned the Sawtooth Range is part of the Rocky Mountains, and that Thompson Peak, the highest point, is 10,751' tall.

Bellevue and its next door neighbor Hailey look separated on the map but they flow together on the ground - except for the way they look.  Bellevue, pop. 2,287, looks like a real town; Hailey, pop. 7,960, looks rich: all the shops are in sanitized buildings (they all look similar and planned, including an Ace Hardware and an Albertsons).  There's an airport between the 2 towns, where I saw one commercial plane (Alaska Airlines) and dozens of private planes, none of them prop planes.  Maybe some were for commuter airlines (though they weren't labeled), but I'm sure most were private jets.

Driving into town, I saw a historical marker titled "Wood River Mines."  I didn't stop but looked it up and learned that "rich strikes in 1879 led to a rush in the lead and silver mines in this valley."  The smelter in nearby Ketchum helped pioneer electric lighting, it said, while Hailey started the state's first phone service and had 3 daily newspapers.  "Now these hills attract more skiers and actors than miners."

Just a few miles farther along the road came another pair of towns: the aforementioned Ketchum and its twin Sun Valley.  I'd somehow thought that Sun Valley was a resort, a skiing destination, which it is, but it's also a town.  Ketchum has 3,873 residents and Sun Valley 1,501 - and it's impossible for a casual visitor to figure out where one town stops and the other starts.  This area has an interesting history; for instance, it was first developed by Averell Harriman (who later became a politician).   Here's the Wikipedia article about it.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Sun-Valley-ID

I saw skiing apparatus in both towns.

I think these mountains are beside Sun Valley (the town)
which is invisible from here on the left of this photo
at the base of the mountains.

A view of downtown Ketchum and a mountain's
worth of ski runs behind it.

I saw lots of pedestrians in these towns and very little parking (and none for me), so I didn't stop.  Instead, I drove up the hill past the famous Sun Valley Lodge to a memorial for Ernest Hemingway.  He wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls at the lodge and lived for many years here and in a house he bought in Ketchum.

The memorial, beside a stream, overlooks a large valley

A closer view.

And an even closer view.

Here's the view that statue has.

I think that roof is part of the Sun Valley Lodge.

As I drove back down the hill into the towns, I noticed the extensive and very protected bike paths that run throughout the area.  I saw quite a few elderly folks here: for instance, one woman older than me whipping uphill on the bike path; another quite elderly who walked up and down many multiples of times in the parking lot by the memorial with 2 ski poles for balance.

Maybe you can see in that photo above that the woods here are mixed - lots of pines, and lots of cottonwood and aspen/birch.  This place must be stunning in the fall.

I retraced about 30 miles of road to make the turn for Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Once I made the turn, I found myself on the Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway. 

I saw quite a few cows and noticed that, when possible, they like to graze under the spray of irrigation sprinklers.  The temp wasn't forecast to break 90°, but I guess the sun feels warm.

The town of Carey, pop. 604, was advertising an Old Car Show.  As I left the town, a sign told me: "So Long - Carey On!"

And I started to see large lava fields, which are unmistakable once you know what to look for.  Basically the state highway was a long winding hilly road through a lava field.  I stopped at a "scenic" overlook (my idea of what's scenic seems to differ from theirs) and took these photos.

I didn't see anything like this pile of cinders.

But I did see a lot of lava.

There's a loop road that runs through this national monument, but the description of the roadway sounded like something I didn't want to do in the RV.  I'm sure it's an interesting drive, but I've already been lucky enough to see cinder cone volcanoes and vast fields of lava, so I didn't mind so much giving this iffy road a miss.

I did stop at the visitor center, though, and found quite a few exhibits explaining how this place came to be.  Some of this will be repetition of information I've picked up in other places, but I've found extra explanations sometimes help me.

Aerial view of these lava fields.
See caption enlarged below.

Caption.

This next is from a sign labeled "Visit the Moon."

Survival techniques illustrated below.

First, plant adaptations:

I think this is the plant in the drawing.

"Bitterbrush sheds its leaves during dry periods,
and grows a new set when water is available again. 
This allows the bitterbrush to greatly reduce evaporation
during periods of severe drought."

And animal needs:

Enlargements below.

"To understand the West, you have to get over the
color green; you have to quit associating beauty
with gardens and lawns."  Wallace Stegner
Very hard for me, but he's right.

And explaining where the lava comes from were these exhibits.

Illustration of a stretched crust.

The Snake River Plain is explained more below.

The Shoshone, who lived here.

The flags at the visitor center were at half-staff, and one of the rangers said it was because of the July 4th parade massacre in Illinois.  I can't begin to tell you how appalled I am that these massacres are so frequent now that we have to keep asking, "Which one now?"

I saw an Idaho license plate that said, "XALTHM."

After getting back on the road, it didn't take long to leave the lava field behind, and we soon came back to crops and cows.

At a tiny airfield, the windsock was standing straight out, confirmation of what I'd been feeling: that there was a very strong wind happening.  It lasted the rest of the day.

I drove through Arco, pop. 995, which revels in being the "First City in the World Lighted By Nuclear Power."

Nearby is a historical marker that enlarges on this idea.  Its inscription reads:

An important page in atomic history was written here on July 17, 1955, when the lights of Arco were successfully powered from atomic energy.  Chosen by the Atomic Energy Commission as an experiment in the peaceful use of atomic power, Arco, Idaho, became the first town in the free world to be served by electrical energy developed from the atom.  The energy for this experiment was produced at the National Reactor Testing Station in the Arco desert southeast of here.

And on to tonight's campground, where we'll be staying the next 4 days.