Reluctantly we left the mountains, following the Snake River into Idaho. The ride again was wonderful; we loved seeing boats and people fly fishing in waders. I never knew that Idaho was more than a potato farm.
After the Snake River and mountainous section we came to lava everywhere. Having seen it in Hawaii, it was not something I realized you could see in Idaho. But we were, after all going to Craters of the Moon National Monument...and it certainly did look like the moon or some volcanic planet. Since the lava is black and it was a very hot afternoon, we only did a few small hikes on paved paths, also black. We were able to see cinders (very porous rocks) aa (also porus, but not in chunks) and pahoehoe which is the ropey slow moving lava. What was amazing is that this had erupted over 2000 years ago and there was very little new plant growth. Primary succession is a very long process where the lava breaks down from wind and water eventually becoming able to sustain plant life. Lichens, which are a symbiotic relationship of a fungus and an algae, slowly eat away at the lava also helping to create soil. Next grow the small grasses or wildflowers. The progression is very slow and depends on the amount of rain. On the Hawaiian Islands the sides which get the most rain have progressed farther and supports trees and such. Craters of the Moon reminded me more of the dry side...weird in Idaho.
We also discovered that there was a lot of early nuclear testing in this section of Idaho in the 40's and 50's. The first town lit by nuclear energy was Acco, the very town we were staying by..no wierd glowing at night, but I wouldn't want to live there.
We spent the night in Idaho at a different KOA. It was adequate, typical clean bathrooms, flat pull in area. We only needed a place to sleep and clean up for the morning. At this point I still had not seen a potato field and we were halfway across the bottom section of Idaho.
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