Idaho is famous for potatoes, nothing else.

Actually, that's not strictly true, although their license plate tag line really is 'Famous Potatoes'. It also has some great scenery, and a large number of loony far-right survivalist groups who have tended to congregate up in the panhandle near Canada. At least it keeps them out of the way of normal people. 

Saturday 9 June 2001

Visited Craters of the Moon National Monument, a once volcanic area now covered in lava and cinder cones, and stayed in the attached campsite which has no facilities whatsoever except for toilets and cold water. Unlike the previous volcanic regions we've visited, this one has excellent examples of pahoehoe (smooth ropy lava formed from hot liquid magma) ...

... as well as the more common aa (broken jagged lava formed from cooler viscous magma). The silly names come from Hawaii, the lava capital of the world where they probably have as many words for it as the Inuit have for snow.

On the way here we passed through the pretty little town of Lava Hot Springs, where you can hire giant rubber rings to float down the river on (we gave that one a miss as the water was icy) and which has a brilliant Thai restaurant. This would be a good place for a week's holiday doing absolutely nothing.

Sunday 10 June 2001 - Tuesday 12 June 2001

West to the Americana RV Park in the middle of Boise, state capital and only sizeable community in Idaho which only has about a million people, mostly potato farmers. On the way we passed a huge industrial complex surrounded by an overpowering smell of boiled potatoes, a stretch of desert across which blows a continual dust storm, and the site of the EBR-1 reactor at Arco, the world's first community whose electricity was supplied by a nuclear power plant (which they presumably put up here out of the way in case it blew up).

Boise has a nice Capitol building, a sort of miniature version of the Washington one ...

... and a number of green, extensive but virtually unused parks.

One day we took a scenic drive up the river to Stanley (population 63); terrific scenery all the way, and you can pick up a free audio cassette at the Ranger Station which tells you all about the history and geography of what you're seeing. Lakes and snow-covered mountains near the top ...

... but it rained on the way back and as usual the wipers packed up periodically. It's strange: this was a 260 mile round trip - about the distance from London to Newcastle - undertaken just to see a bit of scenery, which would be unthinkable in England; we must be getting used to the vast distances out here.

That's enough of Idaho. Oregon next.