Four days in Arco, Idaho…
Why we came…
To see Craters of the Moon.
The campground…
The Arco KOA was nice. We had a long pull-through site with plenty of space between neighbors. The site was fairly level and composed of packed gravel. The RV park was 75% empty during our stay. We had full hook-ups, decent wi-fi, and a reliable Verizon 4G signal. The facilities were well maintained and kept clean. It was well off the main road but in town. Other than occasional obnoxious exhaust breaks, it was peaceful. Complimentary waffles were offered each morning in the campground. They also offered grilled food in the evening and would deliver it to your site.
Overall, we were comfortable and would gladly stay again if in the area.
A KOA Tipee and Number Hill in Arco ID / The campground was 75% empty during our stay
Nearby towns…
Arco, population 995 and elevation 5,325 feet, is a quaint little town. There is one small grocery store, a few gas stations, a few restaurants, and not much else.
“In 1955, tiny Arco won fame as the world’s first nuclear-powered city. Today, it mainly serves as a jumping-off point for excursions into the nearby Craters of the Moon National Monument.”
“Besides the lava-scorched earth to the south and a range of mountains to the north which include both Idaho’s highest peak (Mt. Borah) and its most awesomely-named, Appendicitis Hill, the most striking feature of Arco is its “Hill of Numbers”. For decades, the senior classes of the local high school have been decorating the nearest mountain with the last two digits of their graduation year. Graffiti on a grand scale!”
“The town's economic base is primarily derived from the Idaho National Laboratory, agricultural products, and recreation in the Lost River Valley.” We drove through a portion of the Laboratory on the way to Arco. In addition to numerous pronghorns, we could see enormous hangars out in the distant desert.
After we were set up, we took an afternoon walk around town. First, we walked by Arco’s #1 rated restaurant, Pickle’s Place. We had dinner there the next night and it was very good.
Then, we walked down the Grand Avenue downtown area. We paused in front of the historic Arco Fire Department fieldstone building that bragged, “First City in the World to be Lit by Atomic Power” and elevation of 5,320 feet. A few blocks later we checked out the “Atoms for Peace” roadside marker.
Finally, we cut through the city park and fairgrounds. Playing right into our Idaho stereotypes, we saw a group of high school students selling BIG sacks of potatoes.
Arco’s claim to fame
Adventures…
Craters of the Moon National Monument, day 1…
Have you ever wondered what all the damage to Hawaii's Big Island from the lava flows would look like after a few thousand years? It’s easy to picture that at Craters of the Moon National Monument in southeast Idaho.
“The 3 young lava fields found in the monument, range in age from 15,000 years to 2,000 years. The basic types include block lava (very dense and formed into angular blocks), aa lava (mostly individual small pieces of a very rough, jagged, clinkery debris), and pahoehoe lava (mostly large or continuous with a smooth, ropy, or billowy surface). Visitors can also see vents, fissures, cinder cones, lava tubes, lava bombs, spatter cones, tree molds, rafted blocks, and many other volcanic features and structures.”
We started at the Visitor Center that is 20 miles south of Arco. We watched the informative movie, which featured a lot of Hawaii volcano comparisons. Plus, we got another sticker in our passport book.
We spent the day stopping at five viewpoints and trails along Loop Road.
1. First, we checked out the short North Crater Flow Interpretive Trail. We saw examples of different kinds of lava in the fairly recent flow area (2,000 years).
Then we walked up a trail along the vent of the North Crater Trail. We climbed till we had a good view of the western lava field.
2. Next, we walked the Devils Orchard Nature Trail. The block lava intertwined with the Limber Pine and Rabbitbrush lead the imagination to observe unworldly shapes. “A visiting minister declared this jumble to be a garden fit for the devil himself”.
3. Then we stopped at the Inferno Cone and climbed it. The cinders sparkled in the sun and crunched under our feet. There was a crowd here all making their way up to the top of the cone. It climbed a couple hundred feet in a short quarter mile at an average grade of 15%. From the top we had a good view of the extensive blackened landscape and the Pioneer mountains.
4. Next we hurried to the “Snowcone” and the cool looking “Spatter Cones”. “These miniature volcanoes formed when blobs of molten lava were lobbed into the air during the last gasp of an eruption sequence that ended 2,100 years ago.” They have walking trails up to the cones so you can look into their little craters.
Then, we hiked the south side of the North Crater Trail. We were so glad we did because it led us away from the crowds and to the biggest and most colorful crater we had seen all day.
5. Finally, we parked at the Cave Trails area. It was packed with picnickers and hikers. There were large groups of families hurrying to peak in the caves.
The paved Y-shaped trail leads you 1.6 miles to see four different caves. We walked by Boy Scout and Dew Drop cave on our way to the farthest one, Beauty Cave. Both Boy Scout and Dew Drop had a number of children poking around and having a great time exploring the black depths.
The entire area was pahoehoe lava and looks like brownie batter was poured everywhere forming caves and tunnels far and wide as it cooled.
We had to walk down and over some boulders to get into the wide gaping entrance of Beauty Cave. But the cave floor was fairly smooth. It was quite dark glad so we were glad we had our headlamps. We were thankful to have it to ourselves as well. The cave was chilly and we could see our see our breath in the dim light.
We returned to Boy Scout Cave. The sign said that we had to crawl on our hands and knees over volcanic boulders to get into the cave! We decided to skip it. Dew Drop cave was still crowded with children.
We followed the trail to the Indian tunnel entrance which had a number of folks climbing in and out. So, instead we went off trail and followed markers to the exit of the Indian tunnel about 1,000 feet away. It was fun to peer down at the hikers through the occasional abyss where there had been tunnel cave-ins. Surprisingly, the exit was just a tiny hole. We were able to watch a few hikers pop out like human prairie dogs.
Our Loop Road adventures filled the whole day. But we saved a few things to explore another day.
Our first time at Craters of the Moon!
Arleen got another sticker and stamp in her National Park Passport book / Craters of the Moon stands out
We love the kid’s drawings / Looks like Craters of the Moon is named appropriately
Informative displays and signs at the Visitor Center
Our hike routes along the loop road / Colorful plants in the colorful volcanic rocks
Walking the North Crater Flow Trail / The rock formations are varied and interesting
Expansive view along the North Crater Trail
The Devil’s Orchard Nature Trail / Lichen and an ancient tree
The Inferno Cone Trail / It’s pretty steep
Looking south from the top of the Inferno Cone / Looking north from the Inferno Cone
View of the spatter cones from Inferno Cone
The Spatter Cone and North Crater Trails / Me running up a spatter cone
The North Crater Trail / At the top of a spatter cone
The view of the Big Craters is one of the best in the park
The Caves Trail
Beauty Cave is one of four caves along the trail and the only one we entered
One of the collapsed sections of the Indian Tunnel. There were quite a few people down there.
Ketchum and Sun Valley…
As snow enthusiasts, Arleen and I wanted to visit Sun Valley since neither of us had been there before and it is fabled in the ski industry.
Sun Valley is the ski resort area of Ketchum, Idaho. Ketchum, “a once prosperous mining town, had transformed into a sleepy little town with a year-round population of only 100 people by 1936.”
Sun Valley, “the first destination winter resort in the U.S. was developed by the Union Pacific Railroad, primarily to increase ridership on passenger trains in the West.”
“During the winter of 1935–36, Count Felix von Schaffgotsch, an Austrian Sportsman, traveled across the western U.S. to locate an ideal site for a winter resort. Schaffgotsch was impressed by Bald Mountain, its surrounding mountains, adequate snowfall, abundant sunshine, moderate elevation, and absence of wind, and selected it as the site.”
“Sun Valley was the first ski resort to build a chairlift, which was adapted from a system used to haul bananas onto ships in Panama.”
Climatologically, it does not get that much snow compared to other Rocky Mountain resorts. However, “Sun Valley has the largest automated snowmaking system in the world.” Its meticulously maintained slopes with long consistent pitches are a favorite for many skiers.
First, we drove through Ketchum, which had a ski town vibe. We parked at the Sun Valley Lodge, northeast of town. Then we wandered around the first-class lodge which has 108 guestrooms, spa, fitness center, yoga studio, glass enclosed outdoor pool, ice skating rink, restaurants, lounges, and many shops.
We ate at Gretchen’s Restaurant. “Sun Valley’s own Gretchen Fraser is the restaurant’s namesake. She was the first American to win an Alpine Olympic Gold Medal.” Then we stopped by the Austrian-inspired Konditorei Bakery to grab a few treats for later.
Next, we drove southwest to the base of the main ski resort. We set off on the Bald Mountain Trail.
The trail immediately moved into the woods and kept a nice steady climb. On the north side, we were in the shade of a Douglas Pine forest with woodland plants and moss layered on the floor.
As soon as we switched-backed to an east slope, the habitat changed entirely! Now we hiked through nothing but sagebrush, grass and other drought tolerant plant life. Grasshoppers sprang back and forth across the arid trail.
We hiked two miles to a wooden overlook. From here we had a great view of Ketchum and the surrounding Sawtooth Mountains.
We had considered driving Trail Creek Road through the mountains towards Mackay. The narrow rough road is not recommended for big vehicles, but is touted as one of the prettiest drives in Idaho. Not only does the road have a reputation for eating tires, it would take more time than we had… it was almost “deer-thirty”. We hesitantly returned to Alco the same way we had come.
The ski slopes of Sun Valley from the Sun Valley Lodge
Ice skating rink at the Sun Valley Lodge / The lodge hallways feature pictures of celebrities and dignitaries that have visited
Arleen watching swans at the Sun Valley Lodge / The Sun Valley Inn
The bridge across the Big Lost River to Sun Valley Ski Resort / The welcome bear at the resort
This fantastic overlook is two miles and a thousand feet of climbing up the Bald Mountain Trail
A sheepherder and his three dogs moving a bunch of sheep between Ketchum and Hailey
Craters of the National Monument, day 2…
We returned Monday morning to explore the Tree Molds and Broken Top trails.
It was cooler with mostly cloudy conditions and a few rain showers in the area. We were glad to see the park almost empty. It felt like our own park, just like we prefer it this time of the year.
First, we walked the mile to the Tree Molds. Just as two days before, the evidence of fiery drama was all around us with the lava flows frozen in time. Yes, ironically frozen.
The first tree mold was a deep hole. The lava had flowed around the tree but it was not quite hot enough to instantly char it and the imprint of the stump is still here 2,000 years later.
The next few tree molds were of fallen trees. The bark imprints in the lava were apparent and quite interesting.
We backtracked to the trailhead to start the 2 mile Broken-Top Loop Trail that circumnavigates the cinder cone. First, we left two quarters ($.50) for the interpretive guide at the trailhead.
As we hiked, we paused at each of the number markers and learned more about the youngest volcano on the Snake River Plane. One of the first stops was at the Big Sink Overlook where we looked down upon the massive lava flow known as the Blue Dragon.
As we walked we crunched on cinders. “Cinders contain many gas bubbles or vesicles making them very lightweight. Thin layers of glass coat the cinders creating prisms that refract and reflect light into millions of micro-rainbows.”
One area was covered with volcanic “bombs”. Some bombs weigh well over 100 pounds. ““Spindle” bombs form as hot lava spirals through the air, freezing into twisted, bizarre shapes.”
We strolled down the Wilderness Trail for a half mile to get an up close look at the Big Cinder Butte. It’s the highest point in the park and much older. It even has an aspen grove growing on it.
Back on the Broken Top Loop, we walked through an area punctuated with a lot of pressure ridges. “Crusts of cooling lava develop on the surface of a lava flow. The crust encapsulates the hot, flowing lava below creating a roof. When the pressure under the roof increases, it forces the crust upward causing it to bend and buckle.”
The pressure ridges combined with all the Pahoehoe in the area were like the scene of a giant dragon fight. It’s like they fell and piled on top of each other, their scaly black armor laid out in chaotic directions.
Finally, we poked our heads in Buffalo Cave. It is evidence of lava tubes in the area and how slow moving the hot lava was.
After two full days exploring Craters of the Moon, we felt we knew the area well and learned quite a bit. When we drove away, we were glad we had visited this unique location.
An empty parking lot. We love it when we have our own national park!
Hike route on the Tree Mold and Broken Top Loop Trails / We started on the Tree Mold Trail
Cool views along the Tree Mold Trail
Interesting lava formations and tree molds
Next was the Broken Top Loop Trail / How do these plants survive?
Looking across the Big Sink to the Inferno Cone / We took a half mile detour on the Wilderness Trail
These white colored plants provided a nice contrast / Patchy snow and colorful aspens on Big Cinder Butte, 6,515 feet, the highest spot in the park.
Arleen reading about Buffalo Cave / She gave it a quick look
The pressure ridge formation (along the top third of the pic) reminded us of the Tremors worm tunnels
Next…
We are currently in McMinnville OR. Our next stop is Sequim WA where we sill spend the winter.
Parting shots…
Slow down for the pronghorns! We saw more than a hundred between Dubois and Arco
One of the coolest mailboxes we’ve seen / We saw lots of Clark’s Nutcrackers feeding on the pine cones
(217,900)