Looking out over the flat expanse of Arco, Idaho, it’s understandable why it’s been used for nuclear reactor experimentation. Any slip ups would render uninhabitable a plain that is already devoid of trees or towns. It’s pretty empty here still, with the 900 square mile Idaho National Energy Laboratory closed to the public. A historical marker boasts, “Since 1949, more nuclear reactors, over 50 of them, have been built on this plain, more than anywhere in the world.” In 1951, Arco became the first city to be lit by atomic power. It was only temporary, but paved the way for commercial use of nuclear power. The Arco reactor later suffered a partial meltdown – another world’s first. But there’s no highway sign bragging about that.
Craters of the Moon National Monument is due to historic lava flows, has nothing to do with the nuclear power plant, and is a delightfully spooky place to visit.
- What? You’ve never heard of Arco, Idaho?
- Craters of the Moon is a weird and scenic landscape. Over 1,000 square miles of lava, cinder cones and sagebrush.
- “Witches Broom” is a disease that grows on plants in bunches. Naturally occurring here, it adds to the eerie landscape.
- The last volcanic activity here was somewhere between 2,000 and 15,000 years ago. Give or take.
- Dwarf buckwheat in tiny 4 inch clumps are supported by a root system almost 4 feet in diameter. Flora works hard to survive here.
- Advice from a volcano.
- A study in tenacity. This little tree is only a foot tall.
- On top of Old Smokey, the cinder cone.
- It wasn’t all black. Some of the basaltic lava is high in iron, and gets rusty when exposed to oxygen.
- Mike trying to figure out where we are. Not too many signs around here!
- Walking the smooth pathway to the underground caves. Good thing they paved it. That lava really tears up your shoes.
- They actually let you climb into caves and walk around.
- Spelunking Sue.
- An example of a lava tube, where the exterior cooled while the interior lava kept flowing, leaving a pocket of air.
- The astronauts don’t really train here, but they like to visit.
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