DAY 14 greeted us with a gorgeous view of the Tetons. We got going early in search of gas. We needed to use the gas reserves again to be sure we would get to a decently priced gas station. Turns out we really didn’t need to use both of them; one gallon would have done it. We were going to try to do the scenic chair lift at Snow King in Jackson, but we were way too early. We decided to get on the road.

Three hours later we were at Reed’s Dairy in Idaho Falls, ID enjoying a lunch of grilled cheese made with fresh cheese from the cow in the fields out back and fresh bread from a local bakery. After I had two of those, I managed to get a rich vanilla ice cream cone into me. Well in all honesty I dropped most of the scoop into my root beer cup and just ate the little that was left in the cone. I was full so it was time to go do some errands. Before leaving Idaho Falls, I had to return to get a milkshake and some cheese curds for the road. You’ll see it on the social media posts.

Our schedule has been altered and we decided to cut out a few attractions we were going to hit while in the area. That gave us plenty of time to explore Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This was a great experience. It started with the best film of the park. The special effects and motion graphics fit the content, the content was informative in an attention grabbing way, and it was very well done. We then got permission to go caving.* We took a few small hikes (one steep hills was Inferno Cone) before checking out the lava caves.

After getting in a few miles of hiking and cave exploration, we decided it was time to take a ride to Twin Falls, ID to check out the Perrine Bridge and the canyon. We caught an incredible sunset. After realizing a campsite was too far to drive to, we decided to spend the night at the Flying J in the town next door. Truck stops are a good back up location to sleep.

*Permits are required to go into the caves in order to protect the bat population. There is a disease being transferred into caves via a certain spore that travels on clothing. In order to prevent the spread, it is important that anyone entering a cave that is the home to bats go in with clothing/equipment that has not previously been in other bat caves. White Nose Syndrome is horrible. Paraphrasing what I have learned: the hanging bats end up getting a stuffy nose waking them up before their normal hibernating time concludes. There are no insects from them to eat at that time so they end up starving to death. Bats are very important to our ecosystem. They take care of eating those pesky mosquitos that cause us some much discomfort. Let’s protect them!