I decided to start my trip off making my way south at a
leisurely pace with my first night in Pocatello, Idaho, about five hours south
of Bozeman. It might take most people a little less, but I travel at a
leisurely pace with numerous stops. With a beautiful morning and relatively
warm weather I decided to explore the town a little, including a walk around
the old downtown. Despite being the
location of Idaho State University, Pocatello seems like a mostly industrial
and railroad town. In some ways it reminds me a little of Cheyenne, WY but probably
less prosperous. It’s situated between two
low mountain ranges that are mostly brown and grass covered and strikes me as
especially dry and dusty, a real Great Basin town that’s less prosperous or
growing than the other cities in the state I visited in September. Nevertheless, I like to check out western
towns in my travels. Since they’re
rather few and far apart, each one seems to have a unique character, more so
than towns in the eastern part of the country which are less often as
distinctive.
My next stop was Lava Hot Springs, a small town about 10
miles off I-15 south of Pocatello located just below a low mountain pass. As it’s name suggests, the highlight of the
town is a system of hot springs and a few resorts built up around them. There’s
a fairly large resort with numerous pools that I probably should have
picked. Instead, though, I went to the
first one I saw which was the private pools at the Lava Hot Springs Inn, a
small hotel. It wasn’t a bad thing, though, since I truly had the place to
myself for a soak on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.
Deb
2019-12-02
There are some real nice stone buildings in Pocatello !