From a spooky and beautiful moonscape to an internment camp, we saw things we never imagined in a state best known for potatoes.

Upset Travel Cats & An RV Resort

The travel day that took us into Idaho was a little too long. We typically shoot for a maximum of three hours, but it took nearly four hours to get to Mountain Home, Idaho. The last 45 minutes of the ride involved a chorus of meows from the back seat. Even Nemo was complaining, and that is very unusual.

On the bright side, we arrived to a well-manicured RV resort complete with a saltwater pool and a lovely hot tub. We managed to sneak in a couple of dips in the hot tub by monitoring the pool parking lot and then racing over there as soon as anyone left the hot tub.

There wasn’t a TON to do in Mountain Home, but we did visit Boise (pronounced boy-see, we learned), enjoy good ramen with tofu within walking distance of the RV park, visit Cleo’s Ferry Museum (kind of a roadside attraction vibe, but beautiful with a walking path on the Snake River) and went to a CCC-built dam on Lake Lowell where the parking lot was used in a Clint Eastwood movie in the 1970’s (according to a sign). This was also the first time we have ever seen cliff swallows (thanks to the Merlin app for bird sound identification). They built a huge nest community on the side of a dam structure. Fascinating!

Heyburn, Idaho

Next, we were teleported from Mountain Home to Heyburn, Idaho. Wishful thinking…Greg towed our camper on a stretch of I-84 that has signs warning of high winds, dust storms, migrating deer and then bison crossing. There were also quite a few bouncy stretches of highway which brought out the whining from Cleo and even us at times.

After a slightly wheel-clinching ride, Heyburn Riverside RV Park was such a pleasant surprise, especially for a city park! The roomy sites are well-designed and the Snake River is within sight. The day use area of the park is separated from the RV area, but easily accessible for walking on the lovely paths with mountain and river views. There is also a creepy smokestack-type structure with lights that billows a large cloud every few minutes. We discovered that it is a potato dehydrating plant and that cloud is (non-toxic) potato juice steam. The more you know…

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

The best way to see this place is in person. My cell phone camera cannot adequately capture the vastness, the quiet, the feeling of being small, the breathlessness caused by climbing a (rather large) hill at over 6,000 feet in winds over 50 mph, the sharp, rocky lava fields that stretch to the horizon, the ice at the bottom of some formations when the temperature outside is in the 70’s, nor the true extent of the beautiful wildflowers blooming in this wild and rugged place.

Minidoka National Historic Site (Japanese Relocation)

The Minidoka Relocation Center sounds almost helpful. Hey, we’ll help you relocate, you know, like a travel agent or moving service.

Not at all! This was one of ten internment camps where Japanese Americans living in Washington, California, Oregon and parts of Arizona were forced to be incarcerated during WWII. Minidoka had over 13,000 Americans held captive there while it was in operation. These people were limited to bring only what they could carry and transported by train and bus. The excuse used for this was essentially protection of the United States in wartime, because the Japanese were the enemy, even if they were Americans. Habeas what???

Even though I had learned of this in school and have watched documentaries about it, walking on the same desert soil under the unforgiving sun among the institutional buildings was quite emotional. Reading firsthand accounts made it feel tragically, hopelessly personal.

What is even more shocking is that many active duty Japanese-American soldiers who were on leave visiting family were also scooped up and incarcerated. Later, the government decided soldiers were okay and even accepted new recruits from the internment camps…while their families stayed incarcerated. Idiocy is nothing new.

More Heyburn-Area Exploration

The Heyburn locals were some of the friendliest people we have met. The curator at the Cassia County museum, the campground host, the other campers and the owner of the coffee shop were all wonderful! Many people in this part of Idaho do enjoy extra-loud trucks and cars, however.

Cassia County Museum far exceeded our expectations and is one of those gems that gets overlooked. We also drove a bit and visited Centennial Waterfront Park which is in sort of a gorge and has the very high Perrine Bridge, over the Snake River a beautiful golf course, and the Perrine Coulee waterfall.

Catio Corner

We were not thrilled with the four-hour ride into Idaho, but the California Quail we had for entertainment from the catio made it all okay. Just don’t let it happen again.

We’ve noticed the female human on her computer and on the phone a lot lately doing “trip planning.” Make sure you have your app set correctly so we don’t run into an extra long ride again.

And don’t think your visit with that stray cat went unnoticed…giving it water and a snack. Wow. What about us?