Yesterday was such a non-event that I decided to combine two days into one post:

Wednesday, Sep 28

After arriving in Idaho Falls somewhat later on Tuesday than I expected, due to the road closure in Yellowstone, I needed some time to catch up on routine things today and did little traveling. I had considered visiting the lava flows at Craters of the Moon National Monument but I have done that before and it’s not particularly interesting or scenic (as can be seen on the road video). One thing that would have swayed me to follow that route is the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 at the Idaho National Laboratory near Arco, ID, on the way. This was the first nuclear reactor in the world to generate electricity and was also the first reactor to breed its own fuel (excess neutrons from the fission of fuel can be used to create more fuel than it uses). Unfortunately, it is only open to the public between Memorial Day (late May) and Labor Day (early September) each year.

I, therefore, decided to stay in Idaho Falls until checkout time to work on my Yellowstone posts and do laundry and then drive about 60 miles to Pocatello, Idaho where I would have liked to visit the Fort Hall Replica which is a recreation of an important fort on the Oregon Trail. Unfortunately that, too, is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day so I ended up visiting the Museum of Clean in Pocatello. It is the number one attraction in Pocatello, according to Trip Advisor, and its web site explained how clean can be applied to almost everything so I thought why not? It was created by Don Aslett who, apparently, is a cleaning guru and has written 40 books on cleaning stuff. Although they had some interesting exhibits the emphasis was on telling jokes and not explaining much of anything. Most of the cleaning was the household type – when it came to clean air, clean water etc. they offered statistics but no ideas or explanations. It was very disappointing.

The map and very short road video are here.

A 1910 Eureka vacuum cleaner at the Museum of Clean

but many of the displays were like this one

Thursday, Sep 29

This was a day of travel with two great stops along the way. The drive was 300 miles from Pocatello, Idaho to Ontario, Oregon.  The first stop was in Twin Falls, ID at the Perrine Bridge over Snake River Canyon. Not only does this area have great views of the canyon but it is the only bridge in the US where you can base jump without a permit. I saw two hang gliders in the few minutes I was there. This is also the place where Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River (unsuccessfully) in 1974 and the launch ramp mound is still visible (great scenes and the jump story are in this Smithsonian video).

In 1872 the Federal Government opened a penitentiary in Boise that became the Idaho State Penitentiary when Idaho gained statehood in 1890,and was in continuous use until 1973 . Now it is open to the public as The Old State Penitentiary and was a fascinating second stop of the day. The place started small and was expanded steadily so you can compare cell blocks and cells from 1899 to those of 1954. You can visit death row and the maximum security area as well as the laundry, warden’s house etc. A number of executions took place there, including the last execution by hanging in Idaho in 1957, and you can see the gallows and the “drop room” that the victim fell into when the trap door was opened. These two stops more than made up for the poor day on Wednesday.

The map/video is here.

The Snake River Canyon is impressive whichever direction you look
A cell in the 1899 block of the Old State Penitentiary
The gallows at the penitentiary (left) and the “drop room”.

Not all was doom and gloom – the prisoners had several rose gardens to lift their spirits.