Craters of the Moon and ERB-1

TB was off doing something great, so we headed north. We had dinner at Portneuf Valley Brewing in Pocatello. 

 We checked in to a cute little hotel in Arco, Idaho just four hours after we started. It was an easy drive.

Arco is a funky little tiny town.

The next morning, we drove just a few miles to Craters of the Moon National Monument. We spent the entire day hiking, working on a Jr Ranger work book, picnicking. Oh man, it was fun.

 In Indian Tunnel on a ranger-guided tour. 

 That's one huge lava tunnel!

 We started into some of the smaller tunnels, but we decided that our headlights and guts were not strong enough to go too far into Boy Scout cave. We made it all the way to the end of Beauty Cave.

 The future volcanologist loved the cinder cones. We hiked up Inferno Cone and got a great view of the Monument. The Preserve is bigger than Delaware or some crazy thing like that, so it goes past the horizon in most directions. 

 This old timey geologist loved the pahoehoe. Lots of the interpretive signs at the park had pictures of modern-day volcano phenomenon in Hawaii, so we simply must go. 

 http://youtu.be/2hifUMtzKdU

I thought it was just so pretty.

Ikey worked hard on his Jr. Ranger workbook and he earned his patch.

We spent the entire day at Craters of the Moon and didn't quite get enough. We'll definitely come back. There's great cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in winter. 

Sunday morning, we wandered over to the Idaho Science Center and we wondered how they got a submarine under the city park. 

 A WWII vet gave us a very interesting presentation about the Idaho National Laboratory, where 40,000 nuclear sailors have been trained. 

 I have been really interested in checking out EBR-1, the world's first nuclear power plant, and it did not disappoint. 

The guided tour is heavy on science, a little over preschool level. Kind of over 16-years-ago-physical-science-major level, so we ditched the tour and checked it out ourselves.  

We stopped at the Pocatello Zoo to say hey to the other burros, ate at Ross Park Drive-In, and headed home to give Popa a hug for Father's Day.