Day 6- Volcano & camping in the mountains

We woke up this morning around 930, went downstairs for a real breakfast (we have been having instant oatmeal most days bc it’s quick and easy in the car), and went back to the SC to top off our charge to 100% so we would for sure have enough power to get from Twin Falls to Craters of the Moon (COTM), drive around, leave climate control on when we got out to walk around, and still make it to Idaho Falls to charge again. We left with about 300 miles (so not totally full but close enough) and we got to Idaho Falls no problem. We again could have probably left at 85ish% and been ok, but we weren’t sure what the weather would be like and how much time we would spend at the volcano, so better safe than sorry.

My sister took the first driving shift again because it looked to be mostly alongside the mountains, rather than over or through them. Just outside of town is where the giant baby elk was hanging out, looking like he couldn’t decide if he should cross the road or not. She slowed WAY down just in case, but he decided to go back into the field. Good choice buddy! We are 90% sure it was a baby elk because it was giant- the size of a really large deer- but looked super young.

We made our way up to COTM and stopped at the visitor’s center for bathrooms and a map. We enjoyed this stop immensely, it was cool to look at/experience and had a surprising amount of science posted around that I will be able to use in my classes next year! 

                          


We drove the loop road and stopped at the Devil’s Orchard to walk a ½ mile paved trail, we saw a bunch of cinder cones, hiked up the Infernal Cone, and saw lava cascade and flows/fields. This is definitely a must-see location!

 

                                     

The hike up the Inferno Cone was basically straight up so I didn’t make it to the top of this one- I got about halfway and my ankle was not willing to go further- but Ness went the rest of the way up so check out her blog for pictures from the top and the history of COTM.  (you really can't tell how steep it is in the picture below, but it is VERY steep!)  This is my second hike up a volcano in less than a week which I think is pretty dang cool, and the seeing the pioneer species that have moved in and primary succession taking place (the first picture above with the flowers dotted all over) was fun for me to geek out over. 😊 We spent over 2 hours here and probably could have spent more, because the caves and the North flow were both closed due to Covid. Below are pics of Inferno Cone.

   

We ate breakfast late so we decided to wait to eat until Idaho Falls. We rolled in close to dinner time and plugged the car in, gave ourselves & Nik’s seats a baby wipe bath from the volcano dust and sunscreen, then went across the parking lot to the Mackenzie River Pizza Co for dinner. They have amazing food, I highly recommend them! My sister got a burger and I got a small pizza (with some left over in case we wanted a snack later). We spent about an hour here, so Nik was faster than us. While we waited for the check I went out to move him because he was almost to 100% again. I pulled him up to the back door of the restaurant (they are doing in the front door and out the back due to covid. 

We drove the trip through the mountains on crazy skinny steep windy roads. Vanessa was mildly panicking in the passengers seat because there was no guard rail and the dropoff was immediate and straight down for a lot of it. We were fine, but I had to go slow enough to not totally freak her out while still going fast  enough to try to get us out of the mountains before nightfall. We made it to Jackson and charged behind the grocery store, which had excellent clean restrooms for us.

Leaving Jackson we drove to the Hoback Campground alongside the river where we car camped and enjoyed listening to the rain on the roof while we were nice and dry inside the car. We watched most of the stupid movie my sister has been trying to get me to watch for YEARS but my 12v to 120 adapter quit working so her computer died with about 20 minutes left. Not the cars fault, totally the cheap adapter. The movie is Talladega Nights if anyone is curious. I have an EXTREME dislike of Will Farrell's childish/ridiculous/obnoxious/offensive (take your pick) humor, so I refuse to watch any of his movies. She insisted this one is really funny and always threatens to force me to watch it. This time I finally gave in and let her put it on.  It was ok, meaning not terrible; certainly not as bad as most of his movies. I will admit to laughing 3 times during the entire thing. When her computer died we went to sleep and had an uneventful night. (the pic of us backed into the campsite sucks bc it was starting to rain)
          

I will put the numbers for tonight in a post with the numbers for yesterday soon, Nik keeps finishing up charging before Vanessa and I are ready to go!!!!

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Vanessa's blog:  Travel the World History

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