Volcanic Landscapes and Unusual Museums

We stayed at Buffalo Meadows RV in Ft. Hall, ID. It's just above Pocatello on the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation and is conveniently located next to the casino and hotel right along the interstate.  The campground was a surprisingly good base for the area and reasonably priced. 

The first thing we did was slip over to Craters of the Moon National Monument. At around an hour and a half driving time, it was the furthest out. Along the way, we drove through Arco, the first town to be powered by atomic energy and home to the "submarine in the desert" and Number Hill. Much to Harold's dismay, the EBR-1 Atomic Museum had already closed for the season. 

Arco's Number Hill and "Devil Boat" sail

Later in our stay we slipped up to Hell's Half Acre, just west of Idaho Falls. We took the short loop trail, scrambling over fallen lava tubes. For some reason, I had thought the short trail was going to be an ADA compliant trail. It wasn't. If you have kids, they'd probably enjoy this area more than Craters because there are fewer restrictions to scrambling around. We also noted a couple of campers boondocking at the trailhead. 

Not ADA compliant - Sandals not recommended!

Now to the museums. First up was the Museum of Clean, which is also a Harvest Host site as the founder was sure to point out to us. The museum is not about how to clean, but a repository of all kinds of things that clean. There's an entire floor of vacuums. There's all kinds of cleaning supplies and tools turned into quirky art, and to Harold's delight, home to a muffler man. We found ourselves smiling and grinning throughout the museum. 

Don, the world's biggest janitor 

One of the first walk behind vacuums

Brooms from around the world

"Every museum has to have a dinosaur." Don Aslett, founder

Our last day took us to the Idaho Potato Museum, where there are "free taters for out-of-staters." With museum admission we received a potato bag with a bag mix of instant Idaho potatoes. Bingham County produces more potatoes than any county in the United States.  The museum, besides housing collections of potato mashers, potato peelers, and the world's largest potato crisp, was educational as to the harvesting processes then and now. Speaking of now, we saw quite a few harvests underway while we were in the area. Idaho grows approximately 30% of the potatoes in the United States. The numbers of potatoes are somewhat mind-boggling.

We thought this was a clever Eagle Scout project. 

The selfie from the Eagle Scout project

Largest potato crisp

By the way, did you know Thomas Jefferson is credited with being the first person to introduce french fries to the United States? He served them at a state dinner.