Snow Arrives, but we Skirt Winter!

Ken was reminiscent about this stop in Idaho Falls as he spent time here training at The Idaho National Laboratory when he was in the Navy. Ken served on a nuclear submarine from 1978-1984. Believe it or not, nuclear sub training was in Idaho! Crazy! Was that some senator’s pet project? Job creation program? Or safe place to build a nuclear training facility? Interesting. 

Sure enough the snow manifested as predicted. It started lightly as we saw out of our hotel room window. There was a fantastic view for miles across farmland. The hotel we chose-this time from roadside advertisement, was built on the very far west side of Idaho Falls. And by far I mean in new territory. I am going to surmise that being right next to farmland meant someone was selling off land and there was a grand west-side development process beginning. 

As we packed up our belongings knowing we needed to head further west before the snow piled up, the showers got heavier. The angle of snowfall increased indicating a moving front, and as the snow flakes multiplied, they began to turn the ground white. I thought it had been too warm to stick, but never underestimate the persistence of nature. 

The interstate west out of Idaho Falls goes through Craters of the Moon territory. This is a vast ancient volcanic field of pumice, basalt, and ash. I had been to Idaho a couple times before, but only on the west side: Orofino, Coere D Alene, Lewiston, Homedale and Nyssa areas. I had always wanted to see the Craters area and now I finally see it and its covered in snow! That’s ok, the snow gave it an extra eery feel.

One of the main benefits in staying in a hotel instead of struggling to find a camp site, internet access. I checked my favorite website, NOAA, and saw that the front was narrow and we would be out of the precipitation by afternoon. If we left when we were confident enough to drive through it! 

Here we go, running away from the snow-until Alaska!