Oct 18, 2012 - Volcanoes in Idaho?

To our surprise, southern Idaho was a hot-bed of volcanic activity in the past. Craters of the Moon National Monument is northeast of Bliss on a two-lane road through hilly, scrub-covered cattle-grazing country. Suddenly, though, the landscape changes to jet-black rock-strewn terrain, punctuated here and there by small desert plants. It is an unreal, out-of-this-world landscape. And, in fact, it provided a training ground for American astronauts preparing for the first moon landing. Created by overlapping lava flows from eight volcanic...

Jun 26, 2012 - Craters of the Moon National Monument

Craters of the Moon National Monument was one very unusual place. It is an area of volcanic activity in southern Idaho that had its last eruption only 2K years ago. There are lava flows as far as you can see. The National Park Service has paved trails meandering through some of the areas that take you to different lava caves and some of the strangest formations you could ever imagine. The wind was blowing so hard here that at times you would wonder if you would blow away. Idaho is one interesting state!

May 22, 2012 - Day Trip: Craters of the Moon NM, ID

WINDY! We visit Craters of the Moon National Monument. At the visitor center, we watch a video. Well, we watch part of a video. Two school buses show up so we head to the seven-mile loop road. Our first stop is the North Crater Flow Trail. A .25-mile trail crosses one of the youngest flows. Off I go. Did I mention that it is windy? At times, I fight to stay on the trail. I take pictures but have to kneel to keep my camera still! We stop at the Inferno Cone. A person can climb to the top but I have learned my lesson. It is windy. No, I have...

May 13, 2012 - Heading west!

We finally began our trip west, with the first run ending at Craters of the Moon. Beautiful area, definitely worth seeing! We spent the night there, then did some driving/hiking around the park before heading to our next destination. We made a short day of driving, and ended up at a nice RV park outside of Boise. A swim and soak in the hot tub - a perfect end to a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

Apr 20, 2012 - Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

We were beginning to think we would never see the sun since arriving here in Idaho Falls on Monday! So when it peaked through the clouds today – we were out the door heading west to Idaho’s first national park – Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. We would also be driving along one of Idaho’s thirty “scenic, historic and back country byways” – the “Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway”. We had traveled on one of the scenic byways previously when staying in Utah and visited the City of Rocks (see July 25, 2010 post), called cleverly...

Jun 23, 2011 - Craters of the Moon National Monument

Today's ride was a round trip of 195 miles from the RV park to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This very unusual park, which was established in 1924, was described by its first Anglo explorers in 1923 as “a weird and scenic landscape.” It includes a lava field for miles and miles in the Snake River plain. Fifteen to twenty thousand years ago, lava erupted from the very large Great Rift volcanic zone, a line of weakness in the Earth’s crust about 60 miles long; some of the lava flows have been determined to have happened only about...

Jun 1, 2011 - Craters of the Moon National Monument

We arrived in Jackson Hole, WY late this afternoon after visiting the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and are staying at a downtown motel. The downtown area here is very touristy and quite pricey. The weather finally cooperated and it was fun just walking around the original downtown area. The Craters of the Moon area resulted from numerous volcanoes, the last of which occurred approximately 2,000 years ago, leaving the earth blackened by immense expanses of cooled lava. It is not a very hospitable place, but is interesting...

May 10, 2011 - Travel to Craters of the Moon, ID

We stopped to take photos by the waterfalls in downtown Idaho Falls before we left the area this morning. Along the way at a rest stop, we found a geological site of a lava bed with a great half mile trail. It rained off and on most of the day again. We are camped here at Craters of the Moon (another lava bed-looks like the black lava and beach areas in Hawaii). We went for a short walk tonight. Also saw three large Buttes along the way and the area where most of the US nuclear reactors are built. We stopped in a little town of Arco for...

Sep 12, 2010 - Craters of the Moon - Idaho

We arrived late Saturday afternoon but did attend the Ranger session which discussed the astronomy and we were able to look through a telescope and see Jupiter with it's two moons. The next morning we took a drive and hike. Craters of the Moon, which is a total of 750,000 acres, has a 7 mile loop road providing access to trails that take you over, under and around the various volcanic features which were created almost 2000 years ago. Craters of the Moon was established as a national monument in 1924. The visitor center is located 18 miles...

Aug 31, 2009 - Craters of the Moon National Monument

To be honest the only thought that came to mind before this trip when I heard "Idaho" was potatoes. What a great surprise this state has turned out to be. We left the Grand Teton Park and drove west about 6 hours to a place called Craters of the Moon near Arco, Idaho. The drive in Southeastern Idaho was amazing. We followed the Snake River through beautiful mountains. The scenery was awesome. Then we drove through miles of farmland and desert until we reached a place called Craters of the Moon. This place was created from several volcanic...

May 22, 2009 - Craters of the Moon National Park, ID

Craters of the Moon was recently changed from a National Monument to a National Park. A volcano erupted here 1000s of years ago and left hardened lava all over. Was neat to take a ranger tour to a "lava tube" - where the hot lava flowed (can do for miles) and created tunnels. I didn't go in the one where you have to crawl through it!! Before Craters - we stopped in Boise. A very nice active clean city with a terrific multi-purpose "Greenbelt". We biked the 27 paved miles which went right through the city but also through 7 different parks...

May 17, 2009 - Craters of the Moon

Let me begin by saying in the cleanest language possible there is a problem with loading the photos. I'm gladly turning this over to Corky before I loose patience!! Hopefully, I will be able to post an entire photo gallery. Motoring along US 20 gave us time to drink in the beauty of the country side. Craters of the Moon carries a mystery best described by President Calvin Coolidge. When he preserved this area as a national monument he referred to it as "a weird and scenic landscape, peculiar to itself." Specific peculiarities are 750,000...