Elko, NV or Bust

After leaving West Yellowstone, MT, the next two days were essentially transit days.  I knew we could probably have pushed all the way to Reno in one day, but that would have been an extremely long day and probably exasperating for the kids (as well as Twiggy).  So I looked at the map, pulled out the Road Trips book, and scanned the Roadside America website for an interesting detour along the way.

To be frank, in my humble opinion, there is really not much to see or do in southeastern Idaho.  I did more than a little research on potential stops but could not find anything that seemed even potentially mildly entertaining to the kids.  In the midst of this, I had seriously entertained a side trip to see Craters of the Moon National Monument and so went on the park's website to see what there is to do there and what the park service recommends doing.

In the course of my due diligence I ran across the following passage, written by a former park ranger:

"Its like black vomit from the bowels of the earth" was the reaction of an 1860s emigrant when crossing the lava fields in the present day Craters of the Moon National Monument.  This colorful description was probably the most critical ever expressed about this volcanic landscape, but the negative comment most commonly heard at the visitor center desk is "This place is nothing but black rock."

After working at the monument for over 25 years, this phrase came to aggravate me every time I heard it. I wasn't aggravated by the visitor, but by the fact that I Knew that none of these visitors had really given themselves a chance to experience the place at its best.

Visitor surveys done at the park showed that statistically nearly all visitors to Craters of the Moon arrived between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. sometime during the months of July, August, or September.The problem with visiting the lava beds during this time is that all you experience is an overpowering, parching sun, a drying and too persistent wind, and a stark, seemingly lifeless, landscape of black rock.No wonder so may visitors never return and so many Idahoans fail to identify the place as being as beautiful as Yellowstone or theGrand Canyon. Given a chance, however, I am convinced that anyone who followed these simple rules would come to see Craters of the Moon as every bit their equal....

Reading this passage sealed the deal -- I will never go to Craters of the Moon National Monument, especially with three kids in the middle of the summer.  So I gave up on trying to find something interesting to see in this part of Idaho.  In hindsight, after the transit, it was probably the right decision.  The terrain is essentially high desert or farmland that is crossed by the meandering Snake River in many places.  The speed limit along the bulk of the route was 75 MPH.  And so onward we plowed to Elko, NV.

I was expecting Elko to be not much more than a strategically placed transit stop -- a remnant of both the California emigrant trail and the building of the continental railroad.  I expected a town that is really a collection of inns and eateries for the people driving from the Bay Area east or vice versa.  For those who view the 4 hour drive from San Francisco to Reno as too short for a reasonable day's journey and San Francisco to Salt Lake as a bit of a stretch, Elko is a good place to stop.

However, we were pleasantly surprised.  Instead of being a town full of slightly run down motels and gas stations, Elko was a nice little tidy community.  It does have its share of motels and gas stations, but the town is well-kept and had a nice little sparkle to it.  It had a number of good restaurants, including some highly recommended Basque places -- which were crowded.

As it turns out my preconceptions were misplaced.  What is driving the Elko economy is not simple hospitality, but rather gold.  It turns out that the state of Nevada produces more gold than just four other countries and most of that production is in Elko.  Elko is considered the capital of Nevada's gold belt and it shows.