Rendezvous with Old Friends; Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

I visited with our old friends from Michigan, Phil & Marg Carroll, last weekend. Phil and I worked together in the 80s/90s, and fished/hunted together. They moved to Boise Idaho about fifteen years ago. This was the first time seeing each other in over ten years.

We met halfway between Boise and Yellowstone in Arco, Idaho; about 200 miles of driving for each of us. Arco is the nearest town to Craters of the Moon National Monument. In addition to being the first city in America to get its electricity from nuclear energy (1955), it also has a KOA campground. Our reservation was guaranteed along with hot showers; wi-fi, even a swimming pool.

Getting there was interesting in itself. Over the Continental Divide at Targee Pass. Through Island Park, Idaho and along the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, another fabled Western trout stream. Across ninety miles of treeless sagebrush on Idaho Highway 33, the only interruption a few small towns with populations of one hundred or less. Past huge expanses of hay, wheat, alfalfa fields made arable by the miracle of high plains irrigation.

Our sightseeing was at Craters of the Moon National Monument. It is another impossible landscape of bizarre geology. The site of violent volcanic activity, it is in the chain of hotspots known as the Great Rift that includes Yellowstone, its most recent eruption. Here are vast fields of lava flows, craggy cinder cones, and volcanic rubble where plants and animals somehow make this home through the wonders of ecological adaptation. We heard the Apollo astronauts trained for the moon landings here. What your eyes take in says that is entirely plausible.

We enjoyed the creature comforts of Phil and Marg’s new RV for meals, catching up on our families, hobbies, and retirement life. Good thing; my two-man tent would have been pretty cramped.