Tin Can Travels

30th May-2nd June: Days 52-55

The Badlands just sounds cool. Even if you know nothing about it. In reality it is a bizarre and otherworldly place that deserves all its accolades.

Named ‘Mako Sica’ (Literally ‘bad land’) by the Lakota tribe it was poor farming land that challenged the very disillusioned original homesteaders. The large prairie lands were formed on top of a variety of different layers of fragile sedimentary rock that in time have eroded in wind and rain to form colourful striped humps, lumps, pinnacles, sharp spires and canyons. The whole area is a national park and there is a fantastic road that runs right through the middle of it all.

We booked into the descriptively named Badlands Motel and RV Campground for 3 nights and arrived after a short 60 mile hop from the Black Hills area. This was just outside the park area in a small town called Interior, and had a fantastic view of the hills.

Interior itself is a small farming town, tired but alive, with a population of somewhere between 63 and 97 depending on which sign at which end of town that you believe. Even the locals are not sure. It has a gas station, a shop, a church, a small school and 2 bars, only one of which, The Waggon wheel, came with a recommendation. This was a leisurely 10 minute walk from camp and was a small perfect slice of Mid West life.

We drank beer and ate burgers whilst some light rock played on the jukebox and then I demonstrated my lack of pool playing abilities. The walls and ceiling were lined with dollar bills signed by locals and visitors alike and the remaining wall space was filled with a variety of neon signs advertising beers and motorbikes (For motorbikes read Harley Davidsons. There are no others in this neck of the woods.)  We struck up conversation with the bar owner, Jerry. He was in his 70s, in the local uniform of boots, jeans, checked shirt and cowboy hat.  It transpired that he has a collection of classic American cars and pick up trucks and offered to give us the guided tour whilst we were around. We did not need to be asked twice and arranged to come back in a couple of days.

The next day we drove up into the park, picnic packed and walking shoes on. We stopped in the visitors centre for some information on trails and headed off to do a 4 mile loop walk.  It was much warmer, but not unbearable with a hat on. The trail took us right through some of the formations, which up close felt more like movie set props than real things.  We ate our sandwiches (fairly quickly) sat on a grassy knoll, conscious of the danger of rattle snakes. Another creature that can try and kill you in the US of A.

 

The next day was scorchio. The weather seems to have moved from winter straight to summer without a significant amount of spring. We set off in the truck, first stop Jerry’s car collection. This was housed in an enormous shed just opposite the bar. He had a Gran Torino, an old Plymouth, a 20s Chevy, an 30s Ford pick up, a Lincon Continental Givenchy mark V and a host of other cool pick ups. After an hour of drooling over them all we continued our day’s trundles.

 

Next stop was the Minuteman Missile Visitor Centre. This area of South Dakota was one of the main sites for hundreds and hundreds of silos that housed a large proportion of the nuclear missiles that were pointed at Russia during the cold war. Just dotted around the fields, mostly unmanned, highly secure and primed to be launched within a minute after the final command was given. They could have been landing on target in Russia 30 minutes later. The visitors centre had some really good displays on the arms race, Cold War and the few scary ‘near misses’. Next we drove up to Delta 9. This is one of the unmanned silos. It is surrounded by chainlink fence with a gap in it. You just duck under a chain to get in (this keeps the cows out) and do a self guided tour by cell phone. Genius. The whole thing was quite sobering. We were just a bit young to fully appreciate the tensions of the cold war, but I can imaging it was scary stuff living through it.

Next stop on the roadie was Wall and Wall Drug Store. This started as a small drug store that gained fame by giving out free chilled water to all who passed, to get them to stop. Business boomed, and continues. Now the ongoing family business has expanded to fill a whole block selling mostly tourist tat. We were moderately underwhelmed.

Our trip home took us down the scenic drive through the Badlands. This is a fantastic road with countless view points. Difficult to describe really.

We arrived home hot and dusty, showered and headed back to the Wagon Wheel for a carbon copy evening of 2 days previous. At the end of the evening we added our doodled dollar note to the collection on the wall and  rolled home. Onward bound in the morning.

 

 

24-30th May: days 46 to 52

A sedate few days with no photographic evidence…

We moved campsite after 4 days in this area. Our next camp called Crooked Creek was a whole 4 miles from the one in the hills, much closer to town, and right on the cycle trail.  Moving day was a nice warm and sunny day so we decided to do not much else once we were installed. We had a brief foray into Hill City for coffee and got chatting to a very helpful gallery assistant called Lindsay . She had some great recommendations for eating and sight seeing which were duly noted. Then we loafed around in the sun all afternoon. At last a hint of summer.

One of the eating recommendations was an independent burger restaurant, Blackhills Burger and Bun in the next town, Custer. This has won national awards for its burgers and in the land of the burger, that must mean it is likely to be pretty darn good.  The aforementioned cycle trail is along an old railway line and links Hill City to Custer. A plan was hatched. We would earn our lunchtime burger feast by cycling there. The distance was estimated at about 9 miles by my travel companion, but was nearer 12 miles. This was an imperceptible climb for 8 miles during which we were toasty warm and exhausted, then a 4 mile freewheel downhill to Custer. By the time we arrived we were borderline hypothermic. (Not so summery today.) Lunch was worth it though. Truely spectacular burgers, with bottomless coffees to warm us up. The return trip was aided by full bellies and caffeine, and the 8/4 mile switcheroo on the incline/decline was much appreciated.

Our second eating recommendation was for another restaurant in Custer called Skogen. This has very recently been opened by friends of our gallery food advisor and is a bit different from the usual Mid-West fayre. This time we drove to Custer and had brunch in this small and charming place. Decked out more in the Kiwi style doing high end bistro/cafe food. Delicious and nutritious.

After brunch we drove out to an area called Jewel Cave National Monument. This is an enormous complex of caves, which despite only being about 4-5% mapped is already about the third largest in the world. We did a 1.5 hour cave tour which was pretty good but not a patch on the Lewis and Clark Caverns outside Butte.

The next day was pretty low key again. We cycled the 3 miles into Hill City and sat outside a restaurant with a never-ending pot of coffee watching the world go by. Wired, we got home for lunch before the rain started. That was pretty much it for the day, save for a brief foray out for a walk along the bike trail before dinner.

Sunday we drove into Custer State Park and drove the ‘wildlife loop’. A bit scanty on the wildlife to be honest, but there was some great scenery. The sky threw some thunder, lightening and rain at us again, and after travelling one wet unpaved road Big Dave was impressively/embarrassingly dirty. Between weather events we managed to squeeze in a 3 mile walk dubbed ‘Lovers Leap’. This did include a rocky precipice, where legend has it that 2 star crossed lovers leapt to their deaths. Seems a bit extreme. Just run away together. I managed to entice my Nick partway up the rock. No fear of him getting anywhere near enough the edge to be in danger of leaping to his end. His sweaty soles would have acted like gecko feet anyway. We stopped at at carwash on the way home, and returned Big Dave to a vague black colour.

The sun graced us with its presence for the whole the next day. Hoorah.  It was Memorial Day, a public holiday Monday. We avoided the crowds by doing nothing much but being sedately busy all day. Camping and boating: always something to be doing.

We left the next day via the camp site ‘dump station’. Not much needs to be elaborated here, but just to say that this is universally the recurring low point of the RV experience. This visit was particularly low. Enough said.

Next stop The Badlands…

20-24th May: Days 42-46

Our first stop for 4 nights in this area was up in the hills in a quiet forested park called Horsethief. It had views of the rocky hillsides and every now and then a deer skipped through. It is just outside Custer State Park and near an area called Sylvan Lake which has some good hiking. Our first full day here we packed a rucksack with: clothes for all weathers (luckily), water, nut bars and a handful of Werthers Originals (the survival food of champions…) and set off to climb Black Elk Peak. This is at 7242 ft, and has a forest fire watch tower at the top. The day was cool, but sunny and it was a pleasant 1hr 45min yomp to the top, the knob in the photo below

Factoid: Formerly known as Harney Peak, this is the highest point in the USA to the east of the Rockies and the next highest point to the west of the Pyrenees.  As an additional personal fact: this is probably the furthest from the ocean that we have ever been with our feet on the ground. The geographical centre of the country is close to here.

 

We started on our return journey down the hill, trying to ignore the gathering dark clouds. Unfortunately this policy did not prevent the weather turning to custard. Sunshine turned to light hail, turned to heavy hail with thunder claps, and then the snow came. Hello? 2nd half of May over here. Happily we were well prepared and managed to maintain high spirits just long enough so that sun came back out before we got too cold and wet.

 

By the time we got back to camp it was a lovely sunny evening, and we sat out with a campfire until we ran out of wood and it got brass monkeys cold.

The next day was a definite car day as it was cold and wet. We headed south. First stop Crazy Horse. Now this is quite thing. A project of such epic proportions that it is almost unfathomable.

In 1939, as the Mount Rushmore carvings were nearing completion, a sculptor called Korczak Ziolkowski (who had been involved with Mount Rushmore) was asked by a local chieftain, Standing Bear, to create a memorial to show that ‘…the red man has great heroes, also.’

A hero was chosen: Crazy Horse having been a warrior involved in the Little Bighorn Battle and killed a while later by a US soldier. A hillside of rock was identified, a scale model sculpture designed, and the first blast was 3rd June 1942. Below is a stock photo, with the scale model. To put it into context, Crazy Horse’s face is 87ft tall.

75 years later, only the face of Crazy Horse is finished.  Ziolkowski died in the 80s, but his family are continuing the project and are now working on the pointing arm and the horse’s head. I feel a weird pang of regret that there is a very high probability that the sculpture will be nowhere finished in our lifetime. It will be a modern World Wonder.

From here we drove south through a dark monsoon to a town called Hot Springs. This does have a thermal area, and we did have our togs with us, but it was shut. We consoled ourselves with lunch, then went to other other tourist trap in town: The Mammoth Site. Now this is cool. More than a few years ago, in the days when mammoths were still common in these parts, a geological accident opened up a hole in the earth and filled it with warmish water.  This looked like a lush oasis of green in a harsh ice age environment, and the lone male mammoths would come to eat and drink from it. Unfortunately for them it had very steep sides, and they kept falling in and then couldn’t get back out. The sinkhole slowly filled up with strata of dead beasts, set in a drying out sludge which eventually solidified. Over the millennia the surrounding softer rocks eroded away turning the hole into a hump. A veritable paleontological Kinder Surprise. Millions of years later a property developer started to level the site and the digger uncovered a skeleton. Luckily the developer recognised a mammoth bone when he saw one, luckily he had contacts with a world renowned mammoth expert who was working at another site a mere 100 miles away. Luckily he didn’t feel the need to gain financially from his find.  Now the site is owned by a non-profit organisation, has had a massive roof constructed over it, and it is being slowly dug out in situ.

To date they have found the remains of 62 mammoths, all male. (It could be argued that the lady mammoths were too intelligent to walk too close to the edge of a steep sided pit of despair-however inviting). Our tour guide was a very competent 13 yr old called Michael (not sure why he wasn’t at school) and it was all very interesting. We drove home via Wind Cave National Park, and the adjoining Custer State Park.

The next day we decided to visit to Mount Rushmore. This is small compared to Crazy Horse but because it is finished and you are able to get much closer to it, it is equally as impressive. Quite an honour to have your ugly mug carved 60ft high into a rock. Most presidents fail to attain this level of respect, as we know. The Mount Rushmore project was completed between 1927 and 1941 by over 400 men. Unfortunately the sculptor Gutzon Borglum died just before the last head was dedicated. Nice work though, Gutzon.

You can drive right up to the monument, but we decided to stretch the legs again. There was a vaguely marked trail of about 3.5 miles from a nearby lake. The weather was far more clement, and with more Werthers Originals packed we walked the 2 hours each way.  Very pretty and almost deserted. The monument seems quite a pilgrimage for the Americans, and the solitude of the trail was not perpetuated once we emerged from the foliage and joined the hoards.

The weather stayed good into the evening, so we sat out around a fire again until bedtime.  Dinner was campfire cooked bacon butties. 2 of my favourite things.

The next day we moved to another camp site nearby which is right on an excellent cycle trail and close to town.

 

15-16th May: Days 37 & 38

Somewhere along the line Nick discovered that there is a lounge bar in Great Falls, MT that was a little different from the usual bars. A bar that he needed to visit.  A bar that combined drinking, eating, & lounging with some unusual entertainment.

The Sip and Dip Lounge Bar is attached to a large motel. The motel pool has viewing windows to the bar and is is open for guests to use in the daytime, but in the evening it is the fantastical realm of the resident mermaids (and mermen on a Tuesday)

So we planned a night’s stay in Great Falls around an evening in this fine watering hole. We booked into an RV park in town and drove the short 45 miles from Prewett Creek.  As it was a little early to start drinking at 1pm, we broke out the bikes and explored the riverside trail.  This was a bit more industrial chic than previous trails, but quite interesting as it wound downriver to one of the 3 small hydroelectric dams that helps power the town. (Hence its nickname ‘Electric City’)

Eventually the exciting time had arrived and an Uber took us to our hallowed destination.

It was a place that you never would have found, or wandered into, and was suitably kitch, decorated in the style of a retro Tiki Bar.

But. Unfortunately. The mermaid-on-duty had called in sick. For crying out loud.

We were more than a trifle disappointed. But as one of our co-customers pointed out. “No-one wants to watch a mermaid with diarrhoea”. Wise words, my friend, wise words.

We availed ourselves of some cocktails and burgers, and were less disappointed by the end of the evening.

Here is a stock photo of the place with mermaids installed.

11th-15th May: Days 33-37

Another item on our List is ‘learn to fly fish’. Montana is a trout fishing mecca and the Missouri River quite literally runs through it (For all you ladies of a certain age who had a Robert Redford and Brad Pitt crush like me, the 1992 movie ‘A River Runs Through It’ was set in Montana. Yes. Fly fishing can be cool and sexy. Allegedly.)

So anyway. We selected an out-of-the way RV park, right on the river, and  headed off. We stopped off at Helena, the state capital, for lunch and provisions for 4 nights and made our way to Prewett Creek. This is an amazing spot nestled amongst some deep sided rocky cliffs through which the river runs. The chosen method of fishing here is ‘floating’. The locals have small double ended boats big enough for 3 people. They launch about 8 miles up river, dash back with a second car to leave the trailer at the ramp, then spend a few hours floating back to it. The middle guy steers with oars and the other 2 fly fish. Looks like a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The only other establishment at Prewett Creek is a small Fly Fishing shop run by a local legend called Phil Camera. An East Coast native, he is a world expert on trout fishing and fly making. We called in to see what we could organise. About an hour later we came out with a plan to get licences the next day, an agreement to rent some rods, a brain full of fishing tips and a new friend. We decided to stick to spin casting rather than learn to fly cast. Much easier and still quite a valid method of fly fishing apparently.

The next 2 days were freezing. Wearing all our clothes, with a thermos of coffee and chairs in hand we made our way down to the river. I fished. Nick got his teeth into John Steinbeck. (We only got one licence and rod in the end). We moved several times, even got on our bikes and went up-river a few miles.

My casting was splendiferous.

I put in the hours.

I did everything that the guru, Phil Camera, had told me.

But. Not. Even. A. Nibble.

Not. Even. A. One.

Never mind. The river was beautiful, it was peaceful. We saw an otter, lots of Canada geese and lots of boats floating past serenely. And do you know what? I didn’t see a single other person catch a fish either. So I won’t be too upset about my lack of success. (Although I can’t catch fish for toffee in NZ either…) Phil commiserated with us during our debrief. Apparently this is the time of the caddis fly hatch, which means the trout are well fed and not so hungry for flies. (Contrast this with warmer weather, and the popular activity of tube-floating down the river, in what Phil amusingly termed the ‘bikini-hatch‘)

Perhaps we will have better luck on another river, another time, but Prewett Creek was a little gem. And no trout were harmed in the making of this post.

8th-11th May: Days 30-33

Firstly, before you all start guffawing at the idea of a place named after your backside, it is pronounced ‘beaut’, as in ‘beautiful’. Still pretty funny though.

Secondly, it seems most people pass through rather than stay 3 nights. The lady at the RV park desk had to double check that she heard us right. (We are definitely on a ‘go-slow’ by now.)

Thirdly, it’s a pretty interesting spot, and another beautiful drive through the American Wilderness to get there from Yellowstone

Butte exists because they found copper ore on a hillside, and then proceeded to dig it out. They dug and dug and dug and created an enormous hole in the world. The Berkley Pit. Whilst they were mining they pumped the water out of the hole, but since the mine was abandoned it has filled with a rather beautiful, horrendously toxic, watery green soupy lake. Yum. So toxic that last year a flock of 10,000 Canada Geese landed on the lake and 4,000 died.  So it’s not a candidate for conversion into a recreation facility.

The town got rich on the proceeds of the mining and dubs itself ‘The Richest Hill On Earth’. There are lots of enormous fancy buildings in the old district of the town and it was obviously quite a dandy spot in the day.

We had a morning wandering around, and even managed to procure haircuts from a fancy salon.

The Continental divide also runs through this area. In 1985 a statue called ‘Our Lady Of The Rockies’ was completed. This is a 90 foot likeness of Mary, Mother of Jesus, built atop the mountainside on the divide overlooking the town. Impressive but a bit bizarre, given that it is quite catholic thing and they are at pains to emphasise it is not a catholic thing. No photo, sorry. Here is a fluttering flag instead. The photo doesn’t quite show how enormous it was.

About 30 miles from Butte are some caves called The Lewis and Clark Caverns. (These guys had nothing to do with their discovery but they are so important to the history of the Western USA that they have a whole heap of stuff named after them.) We drove over and did the guided tour, which was very, very good. It was a 2 hour tour through the cave system, with an amusing guide. Lots of impressive structures and rooms. Interesting enough that I didn’t freak out once. (I don’t particularly like being underground) Despite being underground, this cave system is at an altitude of 1 mile. Fact.

No photos of this either. Here is a cool old car instead.

 

Butte saw us achieve another item of The List, which was to eat in one of the Man vs Food establishments.  For those of you in the know about this TV show, this will need no explanation. For those who have never seen it, then this will mean nothing to you.

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/man-v-food/episodes/butte

Butte’s speciality dish is the deep fried pork chop sandwich. “Delicious and nutritious!”, I hear you cry… The Freeway Tavern, a short walk from our campsite is home of The Wop Chop (named for its Italian owner). The Tavern looked like a fight pit from the outside, with no windows to look into the inside. A deep breath saw us push open the door and inside was a small, locals bar. No fighting at all. A pitcher of beer and 2 sandwiches was only $20, and it was delightful. The highlight of the evening was the barmaid insisting 2 of the locals put down their drinks and get behind the bar to fix the 2 sliding doors of the big chiller cabinet. This provided 20 minutes of entertainment to the entire place and their success was met with a rousing round of applause from all patrons.

The weather really warmed up when were in Butte. So much so that one evening we even broke out the BBQ and had dinner outside. Who’d have thought…A taste of life to come, we hope. It was a trifle windy, hence me using Big Dave as a windbreak.

 

The sunshine also made us realise that we are in need of hats, and after a bit of searching we are now the proud owners of slightly cowboy looking ones. When in Rome… (This should also guarantee a break in the weather).  Sunshine was also responsible for our minor low-point of the trip so far.  Up til now, we have not considered rolling out our awning, it being so darn cold n’all. But a sudden increase in temperature by 20 deg C and no wind made us curious as to how it worked. It easily deployed, then got inexplicably stuck out. No amount of jiggling and fiddling with it would change the situation. We searched the internet for hints, we enlisted the help of a few other more experienced RV’ers, but to no avail. The general opinion was that it was stuffed.  Luckily we managed to find a mobile RV mechanic who said he would come and look at it the following morning. He did (eventually), and happily all it took to fix it was some more aggressive jiggling. And a $40 call out fee. Cheap at half the price, methinks.

Butte’s final crowning glory was The Chicken Shack. A fried chicken takeaway known statewide. And it is located at the RV park. We pleasure-delayed this until the last night, partially earned the calories with a long walk, then had a dinner twice the size than we really needed.

Next stop, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

2nd – 7th May: Days 24-29

I suppose that this is the first big ticket destination on our non-itinery. The National Parks are a big deal in the US, and they do the whole thing very well.  In fact Yellowstone was probably the world’s first national park and was established in 1872. Quite an amazing foresight really. We have purchased an annual pass for the National Parks (and monuments) for $80. It will have easily paid for itself by the end of this week.

We are staying in a town called West Yellowstone which sits at the western entrance to the park. It is a classy tourist trap, and every motel, hotel, campsite, bar, restaurant or shop has either ‘Grizzly’, ‘Buffalo’ or ‘Yellowstone’ in its name. Just about.

Our roost for these 6 nights is Grizzly RV Park. Obviously. The park has space for approx 220 RVs, plus some campsites. Happily it is only about 10% occupied and only opened the day that we arrived.

This whole area is at quite an altitude, between 6,000 and 6,500 ft, and it’s been a long snowy winter so there is still a reasonable amount of snow around. Yellowstone is only half open.  We are undeterred however, as the huge advantage of this is that it is still relatively quiet. I can’t imagine how busy it gets in summer. I read somewhere that in peak season there can be a 2 hour queue just to get in through one of the gates.

Our first day here we decided to not go into the park as the weather was mediocre and is forecast to be fantastic for the following 3-4 days.  We visited a Wolf and Bear Discovery Centre, which homes animals that are not able to be released back into the wild. Some of this was due to injury but for most of the bears it is because they were too habituated to humans, and were getting too up close and personal for comfort. Neither of us like seeing animals like these in captivity, but it was cool to see them so close without the fear-factor and they are doing a good job of education at this centre, which is all non-profit.

West Yellowstone also has an IMAX cinema and runs a rather dated, but very watchable movie on the park. So we did that too, by ourselves. Nothing like a private IMAX viewing experience. (Nick was thrilled to discover that at the end of the week the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie is showing.)

The next 2 days we did early starts, and were rolling into the park by 7.45 am. Picnics packed, camera batteries charged, binoculars to the ready. It was very cold initially (-4 deg C the first day), but with clear blue skies.  By the mid afternoon it was 25 deg C. We just drove around as far as we could, approximately 80 miles, then drove back again with lots of stops along the way. The scenery was fantastic. Loads of bison, a few deer, a couple of wolves (or possibly coyote), but unfortunately no bear sightings. The place is amazing, and I won’t even try to describe it.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we had managed to book a room in the Old Faithful Inn. This is a huge log construction hotel built in the early 1900s. It has an amazing open atrium which is about 6 floors tall. (Our photos really don’t do it justice, but google has some good images if you are particularly interested.)

This evening was it’s first day of opening for the season and it was packed already. The Inn is named for the Old Faithful geyser which reliably fires off every 90 mins or so. The whole area is awash with geysers and hot springs and we had a great few hours hike along a loop trail to see most of them. One section of the trail was shut: we weren’t arguing… Even with bear spray, one can feel a little vunerable.

We had an amazing room with a rare view of the Old Faithful itself. After 3 weeks of living in our tin can it was a treat to have a huge room, a bath, and a double bed each. We had dinner, a drink on the mezzanine listening to a musician on the piano who then performed Prince’s Purple Rain on the cello (oddly fantastic), then went out to watch Old Faithful erupt by moonlight, pretty much by ourselves.  We also didn’t get up until we had seen it in the morning too.

 

The next day we mooched back to the Tin Can and had a lazy afternoon. In the evening we saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 on the IMAX. Very entertaining.

It was really nice to be in one spot for nearly a week, and we are ready to move north further into Montana tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

29th & 30th April: Days 21 & 22

A short 83 mile hoppity-skip took us from Ketchum to Arco along a section of the very scenic US-20. This runs in the Snake River plain, surrounded by mountains. The enormity of this country is becoming more and more apparent.

Brace yourselves for some Arco facts…

Arco’s main claim to fame is that is was the first community in the world to be lit by electricity generated solely by nuclear power back in 1955. (For about an hour). Experimental breeder reactor No. 1 is about 18 miles from the town, and was the world’s first nuclear power plant.

This is it from afar.

It was never a commercial venture, but burnt until 1964 as a test bed for the new energy source. The plant is now a museum, and you can maraud all over it on a self guided tour. Tragically it is not open for another month, which was very disappointing for my travel companion.  The ‘season’ sure starts late in this neck of the woods.

Arco plays host to the conning tower of the submarine the USS Hawksbill, aka the Submarine of the Desert or ‘Devils Boat’. A trifle bizarre.

Whilst we were taking the obligatory tourist photos, a chap remarked how impressive it was. For a milli-second he believed me when I said that what was even more impressive was the effort put into digging the hole to bury the rest of it. Must rein in that sarcastic British humour.

The hillside above the town is known as Numbers Hill. Since 1920, every graduating high school class has painted the number of the year on the rocks high above the town. Part vandalism, part artistic heritage.

Arco is also the closest town to a US National Monument called Craters Of The Moon, which is our main reason for stopping here. This is a huge area shaped by volcanic activity over the past 14 million years. The most recent eruption being 2500 years ago.  We spent the day there, driving the loop road and stopping at various points to do walks and a few climbs. A very lunar landscape surrounded by amazing nothingness.

We had the inaugural truck-bed picnic, with at least 4ft to spare.

August 21 is the date of the full solar eclipse, and Arco is on the path of totality. This would be an amazing place to watch it, but alas we will be far from here.

So there. So much of interest in such a small place we’d never heard of.