The curious thing about overlanding the USA is that it’s full of curiosities. For some, the USA is all about the iconic Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, Grand Canyon or Yosemite. And they’re great. But if you’re lucky enough to have the time to snoop around, you’ll find countless curiosity spots. History, culture, science and general ‘well I didn’t know that’ stuff in some of the most unlikely spots. Across south-east Idaho, north-west Utah and central Nevada we’ve found some overlanding curiosities – potatoes, a ‘world’s only’, a steam train, a crime scene, a stony spiral, some rockets, a clean museum, an awful lot of salt, a lonely road and an ostrich race. Folks… you couldn’t make this stuff up!
Overlanding Curiosities and how to find them
In previous blogs we’ve mentioned many curious places we’ve visited in USA. Places for which nobody in their right mind would make a major detour, but worth a nosey-stop if you’re passing. Sometimes they’re interesting, sometimes they’re fun, sometimes both. But like tiny pieces of jigsaw, if you see enough of them, they gradually fit together to reveal a picture of America past, present and future.
Okay… but where are all these overlanding curiosities? And how do we find them? Well, we have a few sources of intelligence: (i) word of mouth from other travellers and more importantly, chatting to locals; (ii) Google – that Mr G knows a lot of stuff, ask him what’s around the area; (iii) Roadside America – there’s a lot of duff-stuff on here, but it’s worth hunting through the entries for the good stuff; (iv) Atlas Obscura – again, some entries are a bit rubbish but often worth a scan as you’re overlanding through an area; and last but not least (v) the good old Visitor Centres – they’re all over the country, staffed by helpful local people who know what’s going down in the ‘hood.
Idaho Spuds
At the Idaho Potato Museum we learned that they grow a lot of potatoes here. Over 140 million hundredweight (over 7,112 million kgs) per year. Mr Average American eats over 110lbs of spuds per year, so demand is strong! Idaho is rightly proud of its connection with the potato and has a few ‘alternative’ fun state slogans:
“Idaho: More Than Just Potatoes … Well Okay, We’re Not, But The Potatoes Are Real Good”
“Idaho: Potatoes and … Well … That’s About It”
“Idaho: You Want a Potato? Yeah, I Think We Can Help You Out With That”
Long term Cuthbert followers may recall that back in Canada we visited the potato museums of PEI and New Brunswick. So, purely for the purposes of scientific research you understand, we had to sample the wares of the US equivalent in Blackfoot, Idaho
The scientific conclusion of our research is that although we enjoyed Canada’s world of potatoes, the Idaho version probably just has the edge. First, sorry Canada, but the Idaho museum does a slightly better plate of fries in the museum café. Also, Idaho does well on the entertainment and educational value. There is a cool VR headset system which puts you right in the cab of a 21st Century hi-tech potato harvesting machine (don’t yawn!) looking around at the extraordinary computerisation used to get the crop out of the ground. Today’s potato farming is futuristic, an impressively slick operation, a far-fetch from old Farmer Giles rolling along on his tractor in the sunshine. Next time you read a comparison of North American potato museums, remember folks… you read it here first! 😂
Idaho: Cleaned, Tapped and Robbed
A ‘Museum of Clean’. How much fun can that be? Well the businessman giant of the US cleaning products industry, Don Aslett had a passion for all things ‘clean’. In Pocatello, Idaho he displays his vast collection in an imaginative and amusing way. Subjects range from the routine domestic clean to dental cleaning to oceans/environmental cleaning. There’s even some detailed advice on how to wash your cat in the toilet😂
Just down the road is the village of Soda Springs with a ‘World’s Only’. A ‘Word’s Only’ what? The world’s only tapped geyser! Yes, here is a geyser that has been tapped with a timed release valve. Every day, every hour, on the hour, the timed geyser busts into life and spurts water around 100ft high for around seven minutes. Even if you’ve seen Yellowstone’s Old Faithful, this one is quite a cool sight – and conveniently predictable!
Another cool little spot is the tiny Butch Cassidy bank robbery museum in Montpelier, Idaho. This is the very spot where, on 13th August 1896, Butch Cassidy and his possie got into the safe and loaded $16,500 worth of the loot onto a well-trained horse that knew where to go without a rider. Butch et al then scooted off in another direction to cause confusion. Eventually they reunited with the loot-carrying horse and escaped. Result: Butch 1: Sherrif 0.
This Butch story links back in our time in Tupiza, Bolivia, where he was allegedly shot and buried. There we learned that a recent DNA test on the exhumed body indicated it was not the elusive Mr Cassidy. Locals here in Idaho reckon Butch returned to USA and lived his days out anonymously on the family farm. Who knows? But it’s a classic lawless wild west story.
Northern Utah: from Trains to Rockets
Leaving Idaho south into Utah, we pass a spot where the past meets the present of the US story. The Golden Spike National Monument marks the spot where the great trans-American railroad was completed in 1869. Sounds a bit banal. But actually, it’s hard to overstate the significance of this enormous engineering achievement. The ramifications were enormous. Suddenly, a journey that took months by horse and cart could be done in just days. It allowed the mass movement of migrants across the country to settle the west. It allowed goods and industry to trade nationwide. The spot is marked with two impressive full-size, active steam trains chuffing around on a short section of track.
Now here’s one of those ‘jigsaw-piece’ stories we mentioned… back in the Buffalo Bill museum (Denver, CO) we learned how William Cody gained his nickname for hunting buffalo to feed the very same railroad workers who are commemorated here at the Golden Spike in Utah. The completed railroad allowed the meat and skins to be quickly transported across the country, which encouraged the mass hunting and annihilation of the herds. The consequential impact of this on the indigenous populations’ way of life is told in countless museums of indigenous culture across western America. And… the completion of the railroad allowed the Irish immigrants, who had fled to America during the potato famine, to move to Idaho to develop the potato industry on which Idaho relies today.
See?!!! This is how these little spots of curiosity link like pieces of a jigsaw, giving the bigger picture and story of America.
In a juxtaposition of US travel technology history, just a few miles from the 19th Century Golden Spike is a site of 21st Century space-rocket development. The Northrop-Grumman display of rockets and missiles isn’t quite in the league of NASA’s Cape Canaveral (in fact it’s not even close to the same ballpark) but it is interesting and it sits there at a suitably remote spot where real rocket-engine testing takes place. Sited so close to the spot where rail travel took off, it puts into perspective the story of technological development in travel and exploration.
The Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake has been on our Bucket List for years. It’s a major geographical and ecological feature of western USA, the second saltiest lake in the world after the Dead Sea. The adjoining Bonneville Salt Flats is the site of many land-speed records. We’ve seen many iconic stunning photos from the area and have been looking forward to seeing it for ourselves.
Another attraction in the area is the lake’s Spiral Jetty. We only learned about this very recently from another traveller back in Hyder, Alaska (thanks, Michele Gordon!) This huge piece of art by Robert Smithson is a spiral pattern of rocks laid-out in the lake-bed back in 1970. Depending on the water levels, sometimes the spiral is totally underwater (that would be disappointing), sometimes it’s partly exposed, sometimes it’s wholly exposed. It’s a thing-of-beauty. But what really makes it so special is the location. It’s at a wild, remote spot on the lakeshore with nothing for miles. No visitor centre, no café, no gift-shop… just a dirt turn-around spot at the dead-end of a long, corrugated dirt-road. Truly on the way to nowhere.
Living wholly self-sufficient in Cuthbert, we’re lucky to be able to park-up overnight at the spiral and see it at both sunset and sunrise. Places like this really make us appreciate the comfort of having a home we can take anywhere!
The changing exposure levels of the spiral highlight the changing ecology of the Lake. Water levels are now at an all-time low… great news for seeing the spiral, not so much for the environment. The first concern is the threat to the fresh water supply to Salt Lake City. One of the fastest growing populations in the USA is draining the lake at a pace nature can’t replenish. A knock-on concern is the extremely high mineral content in the lake-bed that the low water is now exposing. This now dry matter gets blown into the atmosphere as dust. The increasing concentrations of these carcinogenic particles in the air are potentially causing long-term lung-disease problems for the local population.
Ironically the Bonneville Salt Flats, almost 200km away on the western side of the huge Salt Lake, have unusual flooding for the season. At this time of year, the flats are typically bone-dry and rock-hard… a vast naturally smooth surface on which land-speed records can be attempted (and sometimes broken) in a range of vehicles. In September 2022, all the speed events are cancelled. The salt-crust is saturated under inches of water. It’s still a spectacular place to visit, but this is not normal! WTF is going on???
Aircon Dilemma
If we haven’t conveyed the impression so far… we’ve really enjoyed this rather un-known and under-represented part of USA. But one thing that has dominated our time here is an unseasonal heatwave. Frankly Mr. Idaho/Utah/Nevada… it’s downright rude of you to boil us out like this. For the last three weeks temperatures have been hovering around the 39C/100F. Even at night it can be up to 30C/85F.
This has caused that old chestnut the ‘aircon dilemma’ to raise its ugly head with us again. We’ve given this much consideration over our years living in Cuthbert. Yes, it would on occasions be a nice-to-have. But aircon is bulky, heavy and battery-draining. With a bit of route-planning and seasonal-timing, it has so far mostly been within our power to avoid the worst hot-spots. Altitude obviously makes a huge difference, so we have recently been route-planning, hopping from mountain to mountain for night-stops to get some lower temperatures for sleeping. On balance, we still feel that the relatively rare discomfort isn’t worth the disadvantages of carrying aircon. Watch this space… we might change our minds one day!
The Lonliest Road to a Workshop
Trailing west from Utah we drive 700km all the way across Nevada to Reno. Skipping the obvious I-80, we go a bit further south to the State Road 50 – once nicknamed: ‘The Loneliest Road in America’. It’s not so ‘lonely’ these days, but it’s nevertheless a cool drive through some big-sky countryside and a couple of quaint little towns. Far more interesting than an inter-state highway. And there was the occasional section without another vehicle on the horizon. Maybe the 50 is about as ‘lonely’ as it gets on a tar-surface in USA these days.
After a summer of driving long distances up to Alaska and back, Cuthbert needs a bit of TLC. 20,000kms in three months takes its toll. Not only is he nearing his heuuuge milestone 300,000km service (congratulations will be imminent here!!) he also needs a couple of deep-maintenance operations: replacing the rear oil-seal on the crankshaft, and fitting a new oil pump in the engine. Marcus has the skill and tools, but he often has to operate in less-than-ideal locations (e.g. in Ontario he had to remove the 60kg gearbox and change the clutch in a roadside, rough-dirt truck-stop). Now, for the firsts time, he gets to work in a bit of luxury!
Our friend KP Pawley kindly offered space in his super-duper workshop in Reno for Marcus to do the work. KP and his excellent Zero Declination fits-out adventure-overlanding rigs with top-notch battery, power and solar systems. We first met him down in Colombia and as a long-term overlander himself, there isn’t much KP doesn’t know about travellers’ needs in their rigs. We highly recommend him for any systems installations or improvements on your treasured adventure-home-on-wheels.
Camels, Ostriches and Zebras
Hanging out in Reno we saw an advert for nearby Virginia City… did we just read that correctly? ‘A camel and ostrich race’??? It seems we did. Hmmm… bit controversial, but we couldn’t miss it. It had the atmosphere of a rodeo… a big family event with the obligatory fried-food vendors, loud music and lots of fun for kids. The race events really had to be seen to be believed – the animals really just seemed to do what they wanted, running in any direction that suited them – no steering, whipping or coercion was used. The riders were just clinging-on and sometimes falling off 😂. All a bit bizarre really.
This whole event fits neatly into the category of ‘curiosity’, but so far we’re not sure how (or whether) it fits into the aforementioned jigsaw picture of America🤔
Truly the End of an Era
Before we sign-off… it would be remiss of us not to mention a much more significant and sad event this week. People slightly older than us say they remember where they were, what they were doing, when they heard JFK had been shot. We will always remember being in Reno, Nevada when we heard of the sad death of our Queen Elizabeth II.
From our travels we can say that although the United Kingdom as a nation enjoys a, shall we say… ‘varied’ reputation globally, Her Late Majesty personally inspires unrivalled admiration and respect all around the world over her extraordinary 70 Year reign. We are both proud to have served her in military service. With the magic of Starlink we can watch from afar the historic events unfolding in UK as her funeral takes place. In the meantime, we’ll carry on overlanding under a new King.