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Day 22 - Thursday 7/21/2005 - Westward Ho...
"Continental Breakfast" is such a refreshing change from a scavenger hunt through the food bin to start the day. You know you've been camping too long when you no longer refer to the food by taste; only color. "Do you want the red Pop-tarts or the brown ones??" Toast and orange juice tasted great for a change!
We took our time on the way out to Crater of the Moon National Monument (COTMNM). On the way we passed the first operational nuclear (pronounced nu-cu-lar for those from Texas) power plant in the nation. We drove through the town of Arco, ID - which takes great pride in all things radioactive. They were the first city in America to be powered by a nuclear plant. Below are some pics of scraps from a nuclear sub (note the hull number) and a sign denoting the "Atomic Days" festival. I'm sorry we missed it. There's nothing like small town Americana and events like "bobbing for spent fuel rods". I'm guessing in Arco that the "three-legged race" is an individual event.
On to COTMNM, and a scene that looked like something from....well....the moon. The area is not "explosively" volcanic like Mt. St. Helens, but was the scene of large flows over a long period of time (up to hundreds of years). The last flow was about 2,000 years ago and is recorded in the verbal tradition of the Shoshone Indian tribe. The flows were very similar to the current flows at Kilauea in Hawaii. We drove and hiked a good portion of the park and spoke with a really nice volunteer tour guide. We had a great conversation about "Ape Cave" at the base of Mt. St. Helens (from the 2004 Summer Tour).
After the visit to the moon, we saddled up and headed west. Our intended goal is Mt. Rainier, and then possibly Mt. St. Helens. Throughout the drive we saw history markers for the Oregon trail. By 9pm we had reached Emigrant's Spring State Park in Oregon and decided to bed down for the night. A quick setup, some offline web work, and then a little rain had me ready for bed. Tomorrow morning holds the opportunity for a hot shower at the camp bathrooms!
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