![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ArcoCratersoftheMoon00026.jpg\")
<\/a>We got to Arco. and as we drove thru the town, I spotted a conning tower from a nuclear attack submarine with the hull number 666 on it.\u00a0\u00a0 That was a pretty strange site since we hadn’t seen a drop of water anywhere near there.\u00a0\u00a0 We drove thru the small town, and on the other side we found our destination, Mountain View RV Park.\u00a0\u00a0 I went inside to register and it smelled very good in the office.\u00a0 \u00a0Turns out it’s also a restaurant open for dinner on weekends specializing in smoked baby back ribs.<\/p>\nWe registered and pulled the coach into our campsite to deploy.\u00a0 It was rather hot in Arco, so the first thing that got hooked up was the 50 amp cable to power both the A\/C’s to get the heat under control.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Arco is a quirky little berg.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, and Arco is the first town in the world to have been powered by nuclear energy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That appears to be its claim to fame.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Idaho National Laboratory is located 20 or so miles west and they are responsible for all the research on our country’s nuclear power generation systems past, present and future.<\/p>\n We had a pretty good dinner at the campground restaurant,\u00a0 smoked baby back ribs were their specialty.\u00a0 It wasn’t Phil’s ribs, but they were pretty good.\u00a0\u00a0 Especially considering we were in a “hole in the wall” town in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n Tomorrow we head for Boise!<\/p>\n We left Dillon, MT, and headed south on the I-15 freeway till we hit Dubois, Idaho, where we turned right for the long desolate trip over to Arco, Idaho.\u00a0\u00a0 We passed a lot of nothing for most of the way there; but then coming over a small hill stretching out before us were a lot … <\/p>\n<\/a>After we were finished setting up, I mapped a route to EBR-1, the local nuclear reactor\/museum 20 miles east of the town that was built around 1949-1951.\u00a0 Harry Truman, the sitting president was there for its dedication.\u00a0 It was the first reactor\u00a0<\/a> built to generate electricity.\u00a0\u00a0 It was successful and generated about 300 KW.\u00a0\u00a0 It used what I thought was an odd system to keep the reactor cool,\u00a0 liquid metal, not water. basically sodium and potassium that was pumped around by magnetic pumps mounted on the outside of the pipes which seemed ingenious.\u00a0 If they broke you didn’t need to dissemble the piping to fix them.<\/p>\n<\/a>We followed the signs to a single building way off in the distance with nothing else to be seen in the surrounding area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we drove up, there was an ambulance and fire truck.\u00a0\u00a0 Not the best sign when arriving.\u00a0\u00a0 The firemen were just hanging around talking to the young women working there, from what I could tell.\u00a0\u00a0 Probably not much to do out here for them unless there is a fire,\u00a0 which didn’t seem to be a problem this day.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>We just happened to get there as a reactor tour was about to start.\u00a0 It was very <\/a>fascinating to see a decommissioned nuclear power plant up close and personal like this. \u00a0 Standing on top of the reactor vessel and looking down inside,\u00a0 it is filled with concrete now.\u00a0 Something I learned while there was this was also a breeder reactor, it made plutonium too. \u00a0 They used that plutonium in another reactor designed to run from plutonium to make power. \u00a0 If you are ever in the area, you must stop and take a tour.\u00a0 They are free and well worth the time to drive a bit out of your way to see it.<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The next morning there was smoke in the air.\u00a0\u00a0 We got an early start to visit the Craters of the Moon National Monument as it was supposed to be very hot again today.\u00a0\u00a0 The park was about 20 miles west of town.\u00a0 As we drove out of the campground, we were wondering where all the smoke in the air was coming from.\u00a0 Kathy was told it was coming from the fires in Northern California by a ranger at the visitor center, but I thought it was more likely coming from the large fires a bit north of Boise, as they were due west and much, much closer.<\/p>\n<\/a>We drove into the park and picked up a map.\u00a0\u00a0 It was another $20 saved by the park pass we bought last year for $10.\u00a0\u00a0 All the roads inside this park were newly paved and in excellent shape. \u00a0 Pretty much a first for that.\u00a0 The area you can drive is a short loop, about 7 miles, and the overlooks were pretty cool, but you have to remember this is an ancient lava field.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing has happened here in many millennia.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We took lots of pictures, but for all intents and purposes, it was a bit underwhelming to me.<\/p>\n<\/a>But there were a couple cool spots,\u00a0 the splatter cones and hillsides of miniature buckwheat plants that <\/a>appear to have been planted on some sort of grid system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was still fairly early in the morning but was well on its way to being 102 degrees when we got there.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>On the way back, we stopped by the conning tower in Arco and noticed on a large cliff face above the town lots of numbers painted on the stone cliffs.\u00a0 Turns out they <\/a>are the work of each year’s high school class.\u00a0 The graduating class climbs up there and paint their years number.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever happened to S mountain…\u00a0 Hey,\u00a0 that’s our blog’s namesake,\u00a0 S mountain,\u00a0 aka Cowles Mountain.<\/p>\n<\/a>Kathy spotted the most oddly painted motel off to the right of the park hosting the conning tower so we had to take some pictures of that too.<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"