Wednesday was a weather day.  It started in Mountain Home with a cold, cloudy morning that turned to rain just a few miles out of town.  The first stop was an historic marker.  These were present all along the road and I stopped at most.  They tell various stories of the folks that traveled the trails to move west or the stories of mining the gold in the area.  This first one talked of Mountain Home's original name of Rattlesnake Station. 

There was an Abrams Battle Tank sitting at this turn out also.  As I mentioned the day was dreary.

Just another few minutes down the road at the next turn out it started snowing and conntinued as I climbed up the mountains.  It was nothing to get alarmed about, but the locals were surprised it was this early.

Even before reaching the Craters of the Moon Park, you come across volcanic rock formation that cover the landscape.  

It was pouring rain when I arrived at Craters of the Moon.  The park has a loop drive you take but there are several hiking areas and some caves and lava tubes you can also go into.  since I was here I did not want to let the weather limit things too much so I geared up in my rain suit that Susan gave me before the trip...Thanks Susan!!

The visitor center is small but tells the story of the volcanic activity in the area.  The most recent is 2000 years ago with some older eruptions as well.  The activity comes from a hot spot under the tectonic plate that is moving across the US, or more accurately, moving the US.  The hot spot remains stationary while the plate moves.  The hot spot this is now underneath Yellowstone National Park is the one that created the Craters of the Moon area and a string of other features from the Oregon border to Yellowstone.

Out of the Craters I was headed to Arco ID and stopped for lunch at Pickel's Place, very friendly and lots of locals stopping in to eat.

Next stop was to be the EBR 1, Idaho National Labs Experimental Breeder Reactor #1, the first reactor to produce usable electricity.  If I'd been more attentive I would have know they closed for the season on labor day.  I could see it in the distance but the site sits on restricted access land and the signs clearly said it was closed...I decided not to tempt fate with a closer look.  The self guided tour is downloadable and mentions Glenn Seaborg, one of the early atomic scientist pioneers and chair of the Atomic Energy Commission for a time.  I met him briefly at and American Chemical Society meeting many years back.  He was pretty frail at the time but still attending meetings!  Of course they put all this atomic activity in Idaho because is was in the middle of no where.  I drove past the Idaho National Lab facilities and on to Atomic City.  Its current population of 29 is down considerably from 1960 when there was 140 folks in town!  Not much there now although there is one operating store and a small raceway that seems to still be active!

The local garage has seen better days....

Tomorrow is mostly about driving toward the Dinosaur National Park on the UT/CO border.  Looks like about 6 hour drive.  I could do Interstate highways through Salt Lake but think I will take the scenic route:  https://goo.gl/maps/V7kGSQvztsC2https://goo.gl/maps/V7kGSQvztsC2