The Sublime and the Silly

View from Henry Lake State Park campsite this morning

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018

We woke up in our beautiful campground at Henry Lake State Park this morning, noticing how pretty it really was. I walked Cassie along the path which goes at the shore of the lake, and read the information panels, finding out that the lake is a nesting area for Trumpeter Swans. Joe and I had noticed two large birds some distance away last night, but I didn't realize that's what they were! Unfortunately this morning all we saw was ducks.

We headed south from the campground, and took the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. It led through the Targhee National Forest, so at one point, Joe turned off the road into the forest on a VERY unpaved road leading to... we didn't know. We followed it about 3 tenths of a mile, just to see if it was reasonable to think about boondocking by following one of these roads. As best we can tell, it is, although this one seemed to lead to a point right under the electrical wires, and a road which followed those in each direction. We looked online and figured out that the area is managed by the Rural Electrification Administration, so that's undoubtedly what the road is there for. But if we wanted to spend a night back there, I doubt there'd be any reason why we couldn't.

Mesa Falls and Rainbow

We returned to the main road, and continued to Mesa Falls. Being in a national forest meant that it was subject to user fees, but our trusty America the Beautiful pass got us in free as usual. (That was certainly $10 well spent, back in 2014 when we turned 62-- just this past week, it saved us $15 on campground fees and $35 entrance fee to Yellowstone. And it saved us $10 the week before at the Corps of Engineers campground in Illinois. And $5 today.)

Anyway, we had a snack, then took Cassie with us and followed the pathway leading to the waterfall. There was a handicap-accessible viewing area, but Joe started down the steps to get closer to the falls. So Cassie and I followed him. There were a LOT of steps. But it was worth it-- the falls were BEAUTIFUL. There were several observation decks, and every angle was lovely. We were also there at the right time of day to see a rainbow--or as Joe called it, a "falls-bow." We spend some time down there, then headed back up the lots-of-steps. I was proud of both Joe and Cassie (this is the dog who is afraid of stairs at home, but seems to have no problem with long flights of wooden steps.)

Joe (and Cassie behind bush) at Mesa Falls overlook

Back at the top, I went into the visitor's center, which was in a small cabin. The information inside told me that the site was originally planned to be a power station, and that the building was probably built to house the offices of the power company. But for some reason, although they got the necessary permits, they never went through with it-- leaving the Snake River at that point "untamed", and a gorgeous treasure for those traveling in that corner of Idaho.

We left the falls, and drove due south on Route 20, debating all the way about where we should stop next. The "problem" was that I had assumed in my planning that the falls would be a 30 minute stop-- pull over, go look at a waterfall, and then get back in the RV and leave. We ended up staying there for 90 minutes, what with our snack and our trek on the staircase, etc. I had thought we'd stop at the Museum of Idaho in Idaho Falls, which is a fairly large museum, I think. It had several displays I was really interested in (and one I didn't even know about until later this evening, when I saw a promotion for it in a rack of tourist cards.) But I felt that since it was already about 2:30 or 3:00 (I forget), I didn't think we had enough time for that and our preferred last stop.

So these are the museums we had to pass up: the Museum of Idaho (exhibits on Lewis and Clark, the area's nuclear energy history, and a special exhibit on Steampunk); the Farnsworth TV Pioneer Museum (the television was invented here! Although in fairness, we'd have stopped, but it was closed until tomorrow); the Teton Flood Museum (the dam broke in 1976 and flooded the entire town of Rexburg); the Museum of Clean ("Spanning 2,000 Years of Cleaning History"); and the EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor) Museum (a National Historic Landmark where usable electricity was first generated from nuclear energy in 1951.) Any one of these museums, most of them fairly small and dedicated to a single subject, would have been fascinating. And all of them were right on our route, with the possible exception of the EBR-1 museum.

So what museum WAS our first choice priority today? The Idaho Potato Museum!! We arrived there at about 4:00 and were greeted by the sight of a huge baked potato, and a sign-board for the Potato Depot Cafe (the museum is housed in an old railroad depot) with "Baked Potato, $1.99" on it. Well, I was just about ready for a nosh, and a baked potato sounded excellent! So we started at the Cafe, where the only thing they DO serve is baked potatoes. You can get it for $1.99 with butter, or with the topping of the day (today was Stroganoff, heavier than I really wanted), or the potato bar toppings. They had a few other snacks, including potato cupcakes, but Joe and I both stuck to baked potatoes with butter. Yum! The perfect late afternoon pick-me-up!

Next, we took a selfie of ourselves, as you can see here, next to the giant potato
. HOW did we do it? This was just so cute-- a local Boy Scout's Eagle Scout project was to set up a metal stand in front of the giant potato. There was a simple gadget to hold your cell phone, and instructions to set it on delay for 10 seconds, and go get into the photo! I thought that was a brilliant Eagle Scout project--the town of Blackfoot is pretty quiet and there would have been no one to take our photo together otherwise. 

After that, we went into the museum, although we had to stop for a few select items in the potato-themed gift shop area. The museum had displays about the history of the potato (the Incas raised potatoes, and from there the Spanish took them to Europe, and then they eventually made their way back across the Atlantic to North America.) Also there were lots of cute displays-- potato-themed kitchen items such as peelers, bakers, and those skewers to put into the potato to help it bake faster; a display of stamps from around the world relating to the potato; toys and miscellaneous items related to potatoes. There were also displays about how the potato came to Idaho (including a video) and the development of different varieties of potatoes, and a "cinema" where we watched some short films: one on McDonald's French Fries (how are they ALL the same ALL the time, and always taste perfect?) one on old agricultural equipment, and two relating to advertisement campaigns for the potato industry.

Display on how to sort and grade potatoes

In another room was a lot of old farm equipment related to raising and harvesting potatoes, with videos showing the machines being used back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. There was a room for young science geeks, with instructions on experiments with potatoes (how to make a potato clock, for example) and the goofiest thing of all, a view down into the cellar of the building, where we could see 3 large goofy-looking potato-people sitting on a couch (couch potatoes? There was a TV screen near them!) and they sang a little song and then explained how it was important to keep them cool down in a cellar or they wouldn't make it through the winter. They were utterly ridiculous!

All in all, the museum was a lot of fun, and shows that you can probably make an entertaining and educational museum about ANY subject-- which makes the idea of the Museum of Clean mentioned before not such a bizarre concept!

World's Largest Potato Crisp

Joe was pooped by this time (5:30), so we spent some time discussing what our particular ne eds were for tonight's accommodations, and where would be the best place to spend the night. In the end, I decided I'd rather drive for a while longer so we'd have less driving tomorrow (I have a couple of things planned), and we really didn't need anything fancy. I was disappointed at how expensive the state park was last night, so although there were a number of those to choose from, we decided to simply park at Walmart again-- the price is right!

So I drove for about 2 hours west to Burley, Idaho, which seems to be quite a large town right on the Snake River. That river, btw, became HUGE by the time we were 30 miles or so away from Burley, and the town is a center for water-related activities. So we started and ended the day near the Snake River. I did a little shopping in Walmart (we needed a couple of things) and now, somehow, it's 10:30 and time for sleep! The evening has cooled down (it was a very nice, not super-hot day) and we should be very comfortable with the windows open for the air to circulate. Tomorrow, we'll go just a little farther west, and then turn around and start heading east again. Somehow, that's never as fun--but I'm sure we've got a lot of things to entertain us!