Yellowstone

It’s been 23 years since we had Nick and Karen here just after school let out, our tent pitched between the snow piles, seeing our breath at night. This experience is much different. We haven’t seen the bison roaming around our campground as we did back then, but haven’t had a day yet where we didn’t encounter a parking lot on the main highway caused by these massive beasts, and of course, all the “Lookie Lous”!

Of course, the Woman couldn’t but help but becoming a bit of a “Lookie Lou” herself. I didn’t roll down her window this time, like with the giraffe!

Despite being the end of August, all the waterfalls are spewing copious amounts of water. We have no idea where all this water comes given we can’t see any snow cover within the park. But there must be snow cover melting somewhere as we’ve been to over half a dozen waterfalls, and all were raging. A couple were so powerful that they created spectacular rainbows in the midst of bright sunlight!

The Woman again discovered that the Continental Divide Trail runs nearby Old Faithful geyser. Not being satisfied unless she hikes portions of the CDT when she is near it, we set out to find where it crossed the main highway.

We managed to find a section and we hiked maybe a mile or so. The Woman was nervous about bears because of all the Ranger talks we had been to, and so she didn’t want to go in too far when it was only the two of us. She kept yelling at the top of her lungs “Yo bear! Stay away!”, so there was not much chance of a surprise encounter. We found the blazes here much different than we had seen anywhere – fluorescent orange tabs stapled to trees near the trail. Must be the local Ranger’s addition.

We biked from our campground to the only natural stone bridge identified in the Park. While not as spectacular as those in Arches National Park and Natural Bridges National Parks in Utah, it was still fun, and we were pretty much the only ones there.

We’ve had some good wildlife sightings. We spotted some moose on our way into the park, but there was no way to park Colectiva to get a closer look. These Elk showed up near dusk by the local waterhole, and were happy as long as nobody tried to get too close.

I have no idea what this bird is that we saw alongside the Yellowstone River near the lower falls. He looks like something that should perched on Captain Barbosa’s shoulder in Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men tell no Tales.

Talk to you soon!

Island Park Idaho

We stumbled on a gem in Island Park Idaho. Johnny Sack’s cabin. Johnny was born in 1884. A German immigrant at the age of 6, making his way in the northwest United States by building log cabins and wooden furniture. When the US Forest Service in 1929 initiated a program where settlers could acquire homesteads on a 99-year lease, he staked out a prime location on Big Springs.

Despite being only 4’11” tall, Johnny had developed the skills to build his cabin himself, by hand. He also built all the furniture that he would use in the cabin while he lived there. One of Johnny’s trademarks in his construction was to use the bark that loggers threw away as decoration in both his interior of his cabin as well as his furniture.

Johnny originally thought that what he paid the US Forest Service for the lease of his homestead was highway robbery. The Forest Service charged him $4.15 per year for the lease of this pristine location. In total, that would be just over $400!

Johnny’s cabin was on Big Spring, which produces 120 million gallons of fresh water daily. The Springs feeds Henry Fork which feeds one of the best trout fishing waterways in America. Henry Fork eventually feeds into the Snake River where you find some of the best trout fly fishing in the country.

After spending his life building homes and furniture, Johnny Sacks dies in 1957. He willed the cabin to his two sisters. Neither of them wished to live in the cabin and it sat unoccupied. A local, Rudy Kipp, wished to make sure that the Cabin was preserved for history, offered to buy the cabin from the sisters, who eventually relented. Paying as much as he would for a sound home on owned land, Rudy Kipp was astounded to find that the contents of the cabin, all created by Johnny Sack, were all still in the cabin just as he had left it.

In the mid 1970’s, the US Government changed their minds. If a US citizen had entered into a 99-year lease, the US Government would have forced them to honor it. But the US Government decided that they should never have allowed settlers to build around Big Spring due to its significance in feeding the Henry Fork and eventually the Snake River. So, they informed all the lessees that despite them having lease documents giving them rights to the land until 2028, the US Government intended to take back the land in 1979.

Rudy Kipp applied for years to get the cabin placed on the National Register of Historic Places. But he learned that to get that status, a building had to be over 50 years old. The cabin would not be 50 years old until after the Government reclaimed it. 15 of the original 16 homestead cabins had been bulldozed by the Forest Service and Johnny Sack’s was next. Due to efforts of local activists, congress had passed a bill allowing the designation of Sack’s cabin to the National Register. When presented to President Carter, being an avid fly fisherman, he had fished Big Spring, the Henry Fork, and actually knew about Johnny Sack’s cabin. So, with no hesitation, he signed the bill. Just as th

e Forest Service bulldozers were ready to level the cabin, its status protected it.

We had great fun in this gem that we just discovered by chance.

Talk to you soon!

Arco Idaho

We headed to Arco to see the first nuclear breeder reactor in the world. ERB-1 was the first experimental atomic reactor to successfully generate electrical power. Established in 1951 it was the source of early atomic energy knowledge in the US.

While very interesting, it was amazing just how rudimentary it was. The reactor was nothing but a concrete silo where Uranium 235 was allowed to irradiate (throw neutrons at) some inert Uranium 238, which absorbed the U 235 neutrons, and thereby convert it into Plutonium 239. Plutonium 239 can be used as either fuel rods for similar nuclear reactors, or can be used for weapons production.

The robotic arms in this concrete case were used to handle the fuel that would enter the reactor. The windows were filed with a mineral oil which prevented the radiation from escaping while still allowing the workers to see what they were doing with the arms. Each such window cost about $5 million to have manufactured.

This common bank vault was used to store the Plutonium that was created by the interaction of the U 235 and U 238 in the breeder reactor. While not very sophisticated, it did the job of keeping the very potentially dangerous material under wraps.

At 1:50 PM on December 20, 1951, the reactor created enough electrical power to light 4 200-watt lightbulbs. Having done this, it became the world’s first electricity generating nuclear power plant. It later generated enough electrical power to run everything in the building.

When the lighting was successful, all the engineers in ERB-1 decided to memorialize the event by carving their names into the wall. Well, of course, this was 1951, so only the male engineers were allowed to carve their names. One interesting misogynistic fact is that the bottom name on the etching, which has been preserved, is that of the janitor. The male janitor could inscribe, but the female engineers could not. Ward Clever might approve, but I suspect June might not.

ERB-1 was established long before the current proliferation of computing. But even then, the government was sufficiently concerned about outside interference in the operation of nuclear reactors that all equipment in the facility were analog switches and analog dials. Essentially, my phone is 1,000 times more powerful than the equipment used to managed this amazing operation!

On July 17, 1955, EBR-1 made another milestone in atomic power generation. For about an hour, ERB-1 provided power to the entire town of Arco, making Arco the first city in the world to be powered by atomic electrical generation. We also learned that ERB-1 and its successors created the Plutonium that was used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japan, and also created the fuel used to power the Voyager rockets into deep space, where they are still functioning today.

Adjacent to the site of EBR-1 was the town of Midway Idaho, named because it was about halfway between Blackfoot Idaho and Arco Idaho. Hoping to lure the workforce from ERB-1 to live and shop in their community, in 1950 they changed the towns name officially to Atomic City.

Well, the ploy didn’t work. Despite its proximity, the workforce of ERB-1 never converged on Atomic City. Today it is a town with an official population of 29. It has one bar, the Atomic Bar, which we visited and engaged in conversation with about 25% of all the town’s inhabitants – oh, yeah, and their favorite Schnauzer Teddy.

We hoofed it down to Blackfoot to tour the Idaho Potato Museum. We learned that Idaho produces a third of the nation’s potatoes every year. We also saw a video that gave us the poop on how McDonalds makes their fries taste so great – they precook them a bit before freezing and sending them to their stores, and they dip them in a sugar solution to add both to their crispness and flavor.

Much of the potato crop in Idaho is Russets. In the late 1800’s, Luther Burbank developed the Burbank Russet Potato, that was resistant to the blight that brought about the great Irish and European potato famines that killed millions. The success of the variety made it a staple worldwide. This was a potato actually autographed by Dan Quayle since he did not know how to spell potato - he added an "e" at the end.

At the museum, we learned that while the roots (potatoes are tubers that grow underground at the base of the plant) are delicious, the flowers of the potato plant are actually poisonous. As a result, in England the Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diets condemned potatoes. That is where the nickname “spud” came from. Not far out of town we saw field upon field of Russets growing.

When they are harvested, they can be stored in bunkers or potato crypts where the cool and

the humidity combine to essentially arrest their decay. As a result of this, they can be stored in these bunkers for several months and still show up at store shelves as good as if they were just dug up. That is why potatoes are pretty much available year-round.

Finally, we paid a visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument. Established by Calvin Coolidge in 1924, the park is jointly managed by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. We hiked all over the park and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We have been to many volcanic parks and monuments, and this was among the better. Many of the features of the monument we had seen before, but the ribbon like flows of lava we saw here were unlike any we had seen before. The monument was well worth the visit.

Arco has an interesting tradition, made possible by the local terrain. When kids graduate from high school here, its traditional that they spray paint the year of their graduation into the bluffs overlooking the town. In some way it looks a bit trashy, but in other ways it looks pretty cool.

Talk to you soon!

Other Jackson stuff

We ended up doing a lot in Jackson. We hiked in the Bridger-Teton National Forest above the Virginian RV Park where we stayed and also watched the main event.

From up on the side of the mountain we could see where we were parked, and could pretty much see all of Jackson. Jackson is an all cowboy town, with wooden sidewalks, cowboy bars, and oodles of gift shops. We did manage to scare up at least one eclipse souvenir, and constantly bumped into other Eclipsters as we strolled the boardwalks.

One day we floated for a couple of hours on the famous Snake River. Interestingly, the Snake is where Evel Knievel attempted is disastrous jump over Hells Canyon back on September 8, 1974. We found that interesting as we had been to seek Evel’s grave when we were back in Butte Montana where he was born.

We took a dinner cruise on Jackson Lake, the second largest lake in Wyoming, at the base of the Grand Teton mountain range. We stopped at Elk Island and had a very nice steak and trout dinner in the shadow of the Tetons. The weather was spectacular so the cruise was quite pleasant, with magnificent views of the majestic peaks. What a way to cap off a special visit to Jackson.

An interesting effect I forgot to mention was how the trees would act as a camera obscura during the solar eclipse. The small spaces between the leaves on the trees would cast a shadow of the eclipse below. If you placed an object below any tree that was fairly dense with leaves, you got hundreds of images of the crescent of the sun partially obscured by the moon. How cool is that!

While a bit blurry, here is an idea of just how dark it got during the 2 minutes of totality. You can just make out the lights pouring through the windows of Colectiva as it if were midnight!

On a recommendation from my brother Jerry, who has spent a lot of time in Jackson managing the Boot Barn store here, we visited the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. It was fun to “saddle up” at the bar and feel like a cowboy. The Woman said the fried pickles and mozzarella sticks weren’t very good, but the Elk burger I had was a real treat!

Talk to you soon!

The main event

The day came with a bit of cloud cover as the crew of amateur astronomers began setting up the site. But in unbelievable fashion, the clouds quickly moved off and the deep blue, unobstructed sky showed itself ready for what was to come.

The buffet bar was set up well in advance with all the stellar themed items.  Eclipse cabernet, Lunar chardonnay, Going to the Sun IPA, Moon Pies – pretty much everything commercially marketed in food and beverage that had a stellar theme or name.

The motor homes providing the shade for the eclipse observers were decked out with star themed stickies and other themed stuff. After the telescope complex was set up and the themed party goods were put out, folk from all over the RV Park came by to get a peek at the approaching main event.

As the moon began passing over the sun, the Eclipsters (term coined by Teresita herself) donned their NASA approved sun glasses and prepared for the show.

Even Kona decided to get in on the fun.

But when the 2 minutes of totality arrived, it was surprisingly almost a religious or spiritual experience. The temperature dropped easily 25-130 degrees, and the RV Park became dark – it seemed like it was the middle of the night. The corona of the sun surrounding the black of the moon was awesome.

The astronomer experts in the group were mumbling a bit – they were disappointed about not having seen the “diamond” at the start of the 2 minutes of totality. Well, they soon became elated when near the end of the totality, the diamond appeared – where the ring of the corona around the moon thins, with a sparkle in one spot of the corona that results in the clear image of a sparking diamond ring!

As the totality commenced, as huge cheer occurred In the RV Park – it was so loud it even drowned out the Bose radio for a bit. We could also hear the echo of the cheers that went out all over Jackson. What an event!

Talk to you soon!

Jackson

We are eagerly awaiting the once in a lifetime eclipse. Again, thanks to Ron and Teresa, we don’t have to worry about anything! People selling dry camping in their yard at $200 a night – people selling solar glasses at $20 a pair – people renting access to telescopes at all kinds of crazy pricing – we can avoid it all – are settled in well before the crazy road jams, and out long after.

Which left us more than enough time to visit the Jackson Golf and Tennis club in the shadow of the Grand Tetons, and adjacent to the National Park – bonus!

Talk to you soon!

Way to the Eclipse

Before leaving Butte, we catered to the Woman’s national trail fixation one more time. While Our Lady of the Rockies rests on the Continental Divide, we could not locate the Continental Divide Trail when we visited. So, we googled and found where the CDT crossed US Highway 2, and made a special trip. While it was only three rugged miles, it still gave the Woman a fix for a bit.

I don’t know what made me look, but the Peter Wolf Toth SWhispering Giant in Idaho happened to be in Idaho Falls, about half an hour from where we spent the night. So, I plugged what I knew about its location into Brenda, and lo and behold, she took us right there! We hope to capture another couple before we get back to Vegas.

The Eclipse craze is everywhere. Even on Friday out in the boonies of Idaho, there are highway signs warning folk about expecting traffic on Monday, and maybe a few days before and after.

Since our friends Ron and Teresa have been diligently planning this for two years, we don’t have to succumb to all the price gouging that seems to be accompanying the craze. Not only will it cost you $20 just to park in this hay field on Monday, but if you want a “Moon Sofa” (a bale of hay to sit on), that will be another $20 – sheesh!

Talk to you soon!