We left Caldwell around 10:15 am, and it was a grisly drive towards Boise. I guess you could say it was grisly because of dry dusty air, fierce chlorine-white morning sunlight, and many empty miles ahead of us. Overall we didn't get much of a favorable impression of Caldwell or Boise -- we noticed a strong predominance of insect swarms, pre-teen girls in skimpy shorts, macho male truck drivers, and radio stations either playing country or depressing classic rock. Mountain Home wasn't much further, and was equally depressing, with hundreds of abandoned cars and farm equipment strewn across fields between the highway and the town. It was in barren land, and I was somewhat astonished that the government actually maintains an active Air Force base in this barren desert area. Of course my view from I-84 is probably less than accurate, but I feel quite sorry for anyone at Mountain Home AFB who doesn't want to be there!

After the first 100 miles we left Interstate 84 near Bliss and headed east on US 26 towards the Craters of the Moon National Monument. The drive took quite awhile as we had to cover nearly 100 miles, and it took us through wide-open rocky rangeland, a few towns, and finally skirted vast lava fields as we approached the park.

The park wasn't very busy, but I noticed the albedo was very low. The air temperature seemed to soar as we entered this region where the ground was largely black. It was probably over 90 degrees much of the time, and my dark shirt wasn't helping. Needless to say the lava fields were most impressive, and we saw quite a number of different formations, swirls, and textures in the ground.

We continued to Arco, where the town's graduating classes had scribed their class year in a local hillside since at least 1924, and headed southeast. Our next stop was 20 miles southeast of Arco at the nation's first operational nuclear power plant. It ran from 1951 to 1966 and is now preserved exactly as it was (except, thankfully, for the radiation). In fact the attention to detail and the state of preservation were so excellent that it was perhaps the highlight of our day. The staff were also very courteous and knowledgeable.

We continued southeast, driving past extensive central-pivot irrigation fields and joining up with Interstate 15 at Blackfoot then heading south to Pocatello. We looked around town briefly (the waits at the Alameda-Yellowstone Highway were excruciatingly long), and we finally settled on Frontier Pies, a steak place also specializing in pies. Food was fairly good and service was average.

We then continued the remaining 110 miles southward into Utah, winding past beautiful north-south mountain ranges with wide valleys, and the landscape became progressively greener. This was a significant contrast from Idaho and a nice way to round out the day. The traffic became very thick south of Brigham City, and we began seeing peeks of the Great Salt Lake. Unfortunately considerable parts of the lake were diked up to reclaim land for farming, and it was difficult to see very much from the freeway. But what we saw looked beautiful. We pulled into the Ogden Best Western at 9 pm. The motel is a bit too sprawled out, but so far seems to be fairly good.

Tomorrow we will probably see a life-size dinosaur exhibit and then head south to Salt Lake City then southeast into eastern Utah somewhere.

Miles travelled: 451 (and Shannon drove the whole way!)

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