Famous Potatoes

The land either side of the road is less populated as we drive north into Idaho. It's getting visibly colder too. Undulating fields covered in thick snow go off into the distance. The only area uncovered by snow is the road we're travelling on.
I know nothing about Idaho other than what it declares on it's car state plates, either 'Famous Potatoes' or the very descriptive 'Scenic'. Neither sound as exciting as Utah's 'Ski Utah!' or New Hampshire's 'Live Free or Die!' plates. Idaho is scenic I'll give it that.


We're here to visit Craters of the Moon National Park. Another volcanic landscape of hardened black lava and domed peaks. Pretty much all of it is still closed when we get there though, due to the snow. Still, driving through the white landscape that occasionally breaks for the streaks of black volcanic rock is a sight in itself.
Towns are few and far between here and when we do pass through a couple they're essentially outposts and little else. One of the towns has a great name though, Atomic. This is the first place in the US, maybe the world I'm not sure, to be totally reliant on atomic energy. This reminded me of being back in Vegas and reading an information sign placed on Fremont Street. It told of the atomic testing that took place in the desert in the 1950's. The mushroom cloud from these bombs could be seen a hundred miles away and had the knock on effect of smashing the glass of some downtown casinos. Now and again we come across posters in Utah, Nevada and Arizona asking for people who'd been around at the time within a 500 mile radius if they'd suffered any ill effects from the tests. It's a bit scary when you're own government is testing bombs out in the desert and isn't quite sure of the adverse effects yet. They even let people watch the explosions from 7 miles away at viewing areas, in which protective goggles had to be worn. Radiation must've surely got to these people too.


Back in the National Park we chat to the ranger and he tells us that it may be worth climbing the largest crater and snowboarding down it. As this is free and is located just behind the visitors centre we can't pass it up. Boots on, boards out and up we go. A tough climb in sometimes waist high snow gets me 3 quarters of the way up before it's impossibly steep. The hard work gives me great views of the surrounding peaks.


The snow is thick and nice and soft to fall on your face in, as I do often. After climbing up and boarding down a fair few times I'm completely knackered and we drive off away from the sunset to Idaho Falls.
This town sounds better than what it is, the falls in the name are man-made and unimpressively short. It's not totally dire though, half decent half grim. Although Idaho is probably worth more time we've one of the best ski towns in America to visit in the nearby state of Wyoming.

White hills and blue lakes

Higher and higher we drive up from the warmth of Sacramento and snow begins to appear beside the road. As we drive more and more snow build up until we reach South Lake Tahoe and it's higher than the car. It's also getting dark and difficult to find where the hell we're going as road entrances have now become channels cut into the snow. In a couple of hours driving we've gone from arms out of the window and t-shirts on to fully wrapped up in hats and scarves. All this and we're still in California, just.
Lake Tahoe is a huge expanse of blue water that has the border of California and Nevada running down the middle. The buildings on the California side have a bit of the alpine look about them and typically on the Nevada side, where gambling is legal, they have plonked a couple of large unsightly casinos. We stop on Stateline Road which is exactly what it says it is, crossing it takes you into Nevada to do some gambling, if you're into that type of thing.


Along the California side of the lake the road curves its way until we get to a ski resort that's literally just next to the road. Right, time to try out the snowboards. Oh, I forgot I'm crap! Getting the chairlift up the mountain is hard enough but it rewards you with the sight of the clear blue lake glinting in the the sun surrounded by the mountainous snowy landscape. Not bad. Falling on my face, sliding along on my bum and doing all kinds of rolls becomes the norm. I can manage bursts of boarding but mainly it's just pain. The next couple of days we can barely move as our muscles have tightened up and I'm bruised all over.


Lake Tahoe is the home of Californian snow action and the lake is surrounded by a concentrated group of ski resorts giving you a choice of 5 or so within a short distance.
No matter how many times I smacked down on compact snow the scenery was amazing and it wasn't that busy. One guy was skiing dressed as a clown for some reason but that's America for ya.
We carry on towards Yosemite National Park and stop over in a decent American West type of town called Sonara.
It's a nice enough looking one-road small town. We find out later that Sonara has 5 Mexican restaurants! 5! I think there were 10 restaurants in town and 5 were Mexican.
Thankfully I love Mexican food but this is were America is poorly represented to the outside world. On tv and films you get plenty of your standard white and black folk being typical Americans but one of the biggest surprises to me was how many Americans are in fact from Mexico. The Mexican population is massive and they don't just live in the southern states near the Mexican border. They live way up into the north as well. For all the complaining we've heard from African Americans on tv and sometimes on the street we've seen or heard nothing from the ignored Latino population. Most motels we've stopped in have at least one channel in Spanish and usually the cleaners of that motel are Latino. It's strange that in all the things I've seen about America throughout my life that very little Mexican-Americans were included, other than being drug dealers in gangster films as bit part players to the leading African or white Americans. After going to Mexico and South America I like the Mexican people and I just don't understand what's going on here. I wonder if they think themselves lucky to be here and that life could be worse, after all they could be native Americans.