On the fourth day of my journey, I was supposed to drive to Browning, MT just outside Glacier National Park to stay on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in a tipi. Was is the key word in that sentence.
The drive from Salt Lake City to Browning is about 700 miles or just a little shorter than the drive from Oakland to Salt Lake City. I thought it would take the same 14 hours as there were a couple of places I wanted to stop along the way to along the way, which I did do as well as make a couple of unplanned stops.
The day started early and with good weather - mostly cloudy but no rain, so far. The drive north to Montana parallels the mountains to the East for most of the way in Utah. Lots of road construction in Utah but the commute was in the opposite direction so it did not cause any problems. They have a car pool lane but no signs designating when it is in effect, so it may be 24 hours a day. And more of an issue, there were no signs stating what makes a car pool or HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) - not sure if it is 2 or 3 or more. Since it is Utah, maybe it is station wagons or Soccer Mom Vans only. :~o (Sorry that was politically incorrect.)
To get to Montana, I15 goes through Idaho for a short bit - about 200 miles. The road goes through Pocatello and Idaho Falls as well as a small town called Blackfoot. Now Blackfoot is small enough so that if you do not need gas, it is easy to pass on by and head on down the road. Unless you happen to see a road sign proclaiming that Blackfoot is the potato capitol of the world with the Idaho Potato Museum - bum ba ba bum - a definite roadside attraction if there ever was one.
It was cute little museum with what you might expect - the history of the potato: it came from Peru, and facts about the potato and where it has been important, for instance - Ireland. It had implements to plant, pick and cut the seed potatoes as well as a letter from Vice President Quayle about how the museum has been mis-spelling the word all these years. Not really, but there was a letter of apology from the former VP.
It take 24 inches of water to grow a potato and the limited rainfall but abundance of water from the Snake River make Idaho a perfect for the potato because the farmers can irrigate to their hearts content to get the amount of water correct. How about that for logic. The museum is in a former railroad station and is shared with the local Chamber of Commerce - it is not so big so it did not take long to get through it, but I did get a free container of hash browns. Well worth the side trip for a free souvenir. :)
Just outside of Blackfoot is a rest stop with a geologic walking tour of the lava flow that is in the area. A couple of thousand of years ago lava flowed from under ground in this part of Idaho. No real eruption of a volcano, but lava did flow quite extensively. Not sure why, but the picture did not turn out - definite pilot error.
The next stop was Idaho Falls. These falls are in the middle of town, not very high, but quite long. They tumble over a combination of the lava rock and what looks like granite. Not sure if Idaho Falls has much else other than the falls of its name sake.
I15 continues out of Idaho and into Montana. I will start a new post for Montana to distinguish Idaho Falls from Great Falls, MT.
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