Craters of the Moon

After Lake Tahoe we had our longest drive day of this years trip at about 10 hours as we headed over to Idaho and Craters of the Moon National Monument. We planned to get up at 6 to get a jump on the day but it was closer to 7 and we didn't get out of there until well after 8am. We'd be losing an hour as we head back to mountain time but we weren't worried because we thought we had reservations at the campsite. A few hours down the road Becky checked the schedule and found out that it was first come first serve. With our experience at the Great basin I was quite worried as there's not much else around Craters of the Moon and we'd be pulling in really late around 9pm. The trip went fine and we rolled into the campsite late as expected and found a site without much drama. There were a couple left so we choose one that looked like it might fit our trailer and squeezed into it. It was a very tight fit.

The craters landscape is out of this world with it's lava landscape.  It was a good change of scenery and helped lift everyone's spirits. The boys climbed around some hills of lava rock in the campground and were amazed at how light all the rocks were. We just had one full day to explore the area and it was plenty of time, we went to the visitors center and then the driving loop and explored all the sites.  We didn't have any shoes that hadn't been in another cave as we used those in Great Basin so we couldn't explore the lava tube caves here but checked out the other stops.  It was a nice quick stop.  There was a couple mile hike to see some tree molds that no-one wanted to go on so after the loop I went back and checked it out myself. It was a nice easy hike and getting out there by the vast lava field was the best part of the hike.  Not sure if I really saw a tree mold but I walked to the end, I should have read a little more about what I was looking for but anyway it was a nice little hike.

Here are my picture from the Moon.

Becky checking out the lava fields from the campground

Our little campsite

Boys checking out the lava rocks on the hill by our campsite

Becky going uphill, I had thought she'd swore that off after our Ten Lakes hike

Trail to see some stuff, I really like the strip of asphalt trial it blended in nicely

Devils Orchard.  Hey Becky where's the flood!

Time to walk up a volcano and check it out

Inferno Cone, a lot of uphill here

At the top

The Fam

Me and Becca

Heading down

Snow cone

In the Cone, someone lost a hat and still some snow

Vast

Lots of lava, from the tree mold trail

The tree molds?  I guess?

End of the marked trail, just wilderness beyond

Marcus getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger. Just on this stop he decided to start getting into it.