After visiting West Yellowstone, we headed into Idaho to camp with some family. Arco Idaho looked like a good halfway point, and the KOA there made for a convenient stop. I’m not sure if Kristy was planning to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument all along, or if it was a happy accident, but a few days before our arrival we decided we would visit this location before heading to our campground, and I’m glad we did.
Before I get to Craters, let me first tell you that this was very rural Idaho. There were not a lot of towns of any size along our chosen route, though we did pass the Idaho National Laboratory, which had very prominent signs informing us to stay on the road and away from their nuclear testing site.
When we finally rolled into Arco, we were quickly made aware of the fact that this town was the first in the world to be lit entirely by nuclear energy, back in 1955, which I found to be pretty cool.
The Craters Monument is about 20 miles southwest of town. It was quite obvious when we arrived, as the landscape changes dramatically to fields of craggy lava rock as far as the eye can see. It truly did feel like we had left earth, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s wild to look upon this vast field of volcanic rock, which is largely devoid of plants and trees, and realize it’s probably been like this for nearly 15,000 years.
We stopped at the visitor center, where a Park Ranger issued a Junior Ranger challenge for Owen to share some facts about the monument. With only a little help, Owen passed by telling the Ranger about how astronauts train for their missions on the rocks in the monument. This scored him another Junior Ranger badge.
Craters of The Moon Gallery
This National Monument is found in rural Idaho. The small gateway town of Arco happened to be a perfect stopping point on our travels. We are so glad we stopped here! Craters of the Moon is an incredible, other-worldly landscape. Fittingly, the monument has a partnership with NASA to prepare astronauts to travel to the moon and Mars.
After consulting the maps at the visitor center parking lot, we took the truck and trailer on the roughly 10 mile loop road through the park, stopping at several scenic overlooks. We even squeezed in a short hike while we were there. While Kristy and I were fascinated by the landscape, I think Owen’s favorite part was climbing on the concrete picnic tables. It’s the simple pleasures in life.
This National Monument is pretty far off the beaten path, but if you ever have the opportunity to check it out, whether it’s for an afternoon or a weekend, we definitely encourage you to do so. Just try not to let this nugget from the NPS dissuade you: “The time between eruptive periods in the Craters of the Moon Lava Field averages 2,000 years and it has been more than 2,000 years since the last eruption.”
Ok, let’s talk about COVID-19. As I write this, it is the summer of 2020, and we are in the midst of the second wave of the outbreak here in the United States. We have a patchwork governmental response that varies highly from state to state, and even city to city. Factual reporting on the pandemic is the exception rather than the rule, and non-expert opinions and anecdotes abound. Both fear and hubris are in strong supply. Infections and deaths in the US are higher than in many other countries, and some would argue higher than they should be in a first-world, developed nation with access to modern healthcare tools and techniques. In other words, it’s not exactly what we thought the world would look like when we started planning this trip several years ago.
I’m sure some of you are thinking that it is irresponsible to be traveling around the country right now, others may be curious what precautions we are taking, so that you can plan a similar trip. I’ll share our opinions, tactics and techniques related to this topic, but please accept the fact that COVID-19 has different impacts in different parts of the country, and also on people with different health risk factors. The research on the virus is ongoing, with new details emerging frequently. If our knowledge about the pandemic changes, our plan will too. This is our take, it may or may not work for you, and I encourage you to plan and take actions that are best for you and your family.
To set the stage, we started planning this trip several years ago, and the thought of a global pandemic contingency plan didn’t cross our mind back then. Our original planned departure was in March/April of 2020. As the impact and severity of the pandemic was growing and becoming known at that time, we pushed back our date. Eventually, and with much thought and contemplation (and a lot of back up plans), we decided to begin our journey in June. We made several changes to our original plans, but felt like it was still something we wanted to do.
So first off, if you are not aware, we travel with a truck and a 30ft RV travel trailer. This enables us to greatly reduce (but not totally eliminate) contact with others. We have not been using airlines, we rarely stay at hotels and we cook most of our meals at or in the RV. Wherever we go, we strictly adhere to, or exceed all local regulations and laws for travel, masks and social distancing (Owen included). We avoid indoor public spaces where we are likely to encounter others whenever possible. We do curbside pickup for anything we can (groceries, etc), and plan ahead to minimize the number of orders/trips. If we must enter an indoor space with other humans, we always mask up, and keep the amount of time indoors to a minimum. We also wear masks outdoors if we are expecting to encounter other people (for example, when we visited Mount Rushmore or when we are on busy or narrow hiking trails).
Next, I’d like to talk about societal inequality. Our family falls more on the risk-averse side of the risk spectrum (which I’ll talk about later), but traveling during a pandemic isn’t just about our safety. We represent a risk to the communities that we visit. Some of the employees who are working at establishments we patronize (gas stations, stores, etc) might not have the means or option to isolate at home for their safety. We are conscious of this fact, and try to be respectful to the local communities. This is a balancing act however, because many of the cities we are visiting have economies largely based on tourism, and from a financial perspective they have been especially hard hit by the shutdown or slowdown. We want to support these communities through economic activity, but not put them at undue risk from encounters with a family that has been traveling. In short, we try to recognize the risk we represent and balance our net positive/negative impact on the local community.
The Risk Spectrum. We believe that, inside the bounds of a community’s laws and regulations, everyone’s behavior is largely governed by where they fall on the “Risk Spectrum”. On one end you have Risk Averse and on the other, Risk Tolerant.
Imagine something like this:
Each person may have different risk tolerances for different activities. For example your investing risk tolerance might be different than your COVID-19 risk tolerance. For COVID-19, Super Risk Averse might look like only leaving home for true emergencies, and having zero physical contact with other humans. The other side of the spectrum might be something like going to a small, crowded, indoor bar, filled with strangers, in a high case-count area, where no one is wearing masks.
As for us, we are more towards the Risk Averse side of the spectrum, but not at the far edge of it. This means we venture out into the world, but avoid contact as much as practical and keep our distance. It means we do take Owen to outdoor parks and playgrounds, but we choose to leave if more than one or two other families are present. It means we do, on occasion, get together with small groups of friends or family if we are mutually comfortable sharing space and air with each other. It also means we choose to avoid most indoor establishments, and it means we are less social with campground neighbors and fellow travelers than we might be otherwise. We also choose to spend more time in places with lower population densities, and lower case counts. All of these choices are informed by our understanding and current knowledge about viral transmission, as well as each location’s regulations.
It’s also important to consider the emotional impact of traveling right now. While we might be seeing lots of new places, we are not seeing lots of people, at least not in the sense that we are able to make meaningful connections. Kristy and Owen are both very social people (me slightly less so), and limiting interactions has been tough. It is difficult to take Owen to a park, only to leave when several other kids arrive. Owen gets so excited to make new friends, and it is heartbreaking to feel like we have to discourage that right now. We talk openly with him about the pandemic, and while he may not grasp the enormity of it, he does understand what’s going on. As much as we don’t want social distancing guidelines to become his view of what’s normal forever, we take some small solace in the fact that pretty much all American children are experiencing the same thing. It’s still hard though. So we do zoom calls, and briefly chat with campground neighbors from 15 feet away, and just like everyone else, we try and make the best of it while staying safe.
An additional element of our approach to traveling right now is staying informed on the progression of the pandemic. We frequently check case counts for the area we’re in, or are heading to soon. We adjust our travel plans if we are uncomfortable with the numbers. We acknowledge the fact that these stats are lagging indicators and may not tell the whole story for a region. We do our best to keep up with the current scientific consensus of viral transmission and prevention, and act accordingly. This is not always easy. There is a lot of misinformation out there, as well as well-meaning, but outright wrong opinions. So we take in news and information from a variety of different reputable sources and then we do our best to make an informed decision about our future plans and actions. We accept that traveling right now is not a risk-free proposition. We also believe that if our only view of the world is through the lens of the news media and social media, we would have a skewed view of reality, and so we choose to go out into the world, and see it for ourselves.
Finally we have a lot of backup plans. Our travel plans are not set in stone, and we have the flexibility to quickly make changes. These plans range from simply avoiding certain areas to scrapping the trip and choosing a safe place to settle down and wait it out. We feel we have a variety of options available to us should our situation change, and this gives us the peace of mind and confidence to proceed with the trip.
So that’s it! Well, not really, but that seems like a good place to stop for now. We always knew this trip would present us with unexpected challenges, and in that regard we were certainly correct. Our knowledge and approach to travel in the time of COVID-19 is continuously evolving, and as such, I reserve the right to update this blog post if and when our perspectives change!
After departing Rapid City, we made a slight detour down into Northern Colorado to see friends and family, as well as celebrate the Fourth of July. We considered stopping in at Rocky Mountain National Park while we were there, but alas, entry reservations were not available. We’ll return to RMNP a different time.
From Colorado, we made our trek to Grand Teton up through Rock Springs Wyoming, and then on to the city of Jackson. Fun fact: The “Hole” part of “Jackson Hole” refers to a flat, plains-like area surrounded on all sides by mountains. So Jacksons Hole refers to a specific part of the terrain in the area. The actual city name though, is simply Jackson, Wyoming.
Jackson was a surprisingly busy little town, with more than its fair share of traffic on the roads. I can understand the crowds though, as it’s a fun little town, with remarkable wilderness a stone’s throw in any direction. Most of the businesses in the city were open, surprisingly, although there was a strict mask mandate city wide. Since we chose to avoid the town and crowds for this trip, this is another destination we would like to return to in the future, perhaps a winter ski-trip some day!
Grand Teton National Park was one of the parks that both Kristy and I were most looking forward to, and it did not disappoint! The jagged rocky mountains rise at a seemingly impossibly steep incline out of the ground. In some places it looked as though the mountains had suddenly burst straight out of a lake. The rate of elevation change on these peaks is some of the steepest in the world, and it makes for striking visuals. We were standing at the base of the mountains in 80 degree July heat, but looking up we could see snow on the peaks.
We made several trips into the park to experience the mountains from different perspectives and at different times of day, and each view was completely unique. From the East side of the range, morning sunlight definitely provided more dramatic detail across the park. We most enjoyed the views from Mormon Row (the iconic barn pictures) and Jenny Lake. The view from Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor center on the south side of the park is also striking. From here we did a short hike to the Murie Ranch, where we were the only ones on the trail.
Owen taking a family selfie on one of the toddler friendly trails
One thing about Grand Teton, it was a bit less toddler friendly than some of the other parks we have been too. We only found a handful of hikes that were reasonable for a three year old (and nervous parents), and some of the best rated hikes and views involved either a ferry boat ride or a several mile long out-and-back hike. Nevertheless, we had an incredible time here, and it gives us reason to return in the future!
A brief final thought, there is nothing quite like breathing in a deep breath of crisp, fresh mountain air, with just a hint of pine in it. Of that, we had plenty here, and it was glorious.
Grand Teton Gallery
“Grand” is an understatement when describing Grand Teton National Park. Our family especially loves the mountains, and Grand Teton was nothing short of spectacular. As an added bonus we learned one of the peaks next to Grand Teton is Mt. Owen. As you might imagine, Owen enjoyed this fact.
