Arco, ID

September 20 – 21, 2020

Craters of the Moon / Arco KOA Journey
2424 3000 West
Arco, ID 83213

We had booked a site at the KAO park in Arco, ID for one night. We drove from St. Regis to Missoula on I-90 before heading South on RT93.

This day of driving through Idaho on RT93 was the most interesting and amazing driving day for us so far. The landscape was incredibly beautiful and ever-changing. JJ had a blast! And that made me happy too. This road deserves a motorcycle trip and frequent stops along the way. There were many RV parks and a good number of them had excellent cell phone reception as well. If we can fit it in, we need to come back!

We ended up in Arco, ID, which is a small town I had never heard of before. 

Arco is named after the German Georg von Arco, who was an inventor and a pioneer in the field of radio transmission and would become the lead engineer at Telefunken.

Arco also was the first city in the world powered by nuclear energy. The whole area and nearby Idaho National Laboratory have a rich history in the nuclear industry. The first nuclear reactor for a submarine was built there. On January 3, 1961, a nuclear reactor was destroyed through an operator error and 3 people lost their lives. It was the world’s first and the United States’ only fatal reactor accident.

I was wondering why JJ was glowing in the dark…

Another interesting find: Right next to the KAO was an “alternative” RV park called “Honey”. Maybe we should have stayed there. Interesting place! You can read more here. The reviews on Google are interesting too.