Craters of the Moon NM

12^th September Travel into Idaho

We set off from out of the Grand Tetons, through Jackson Hole, on our way west from Wyoming into Idaho.  The mountains and tree landscape gradually changed and turned into agricultural fields.  On our way to Idaho Falls we passed Palisades Reservoir.  The water level must be nearly 80ft below its highest level.   

We checked into the Craters of the Moon National Monument campground just in time, as at least another 10 RVs arrived after us, we had the last site that would take our size of rig.

We had two thunderstorms that evening; one of which curtailed the Ranger evening presentation that we attended.

13^th September Craters of the Moon NM

We drove the Craters Drive Loop stopping at the various points of interest.  This is a volcanic landscape.  Vast volumes of lava have flowed, not from one volcano but from a series of deep fissures known as the Great Rift over the past 14000 years.  Eruptions have been fairly consistent every 2000 years and the last one was 2100 years ago – so another one may be overdue? 

We saw Spatter cones and Alison climbed ‘Inferno Cone’ which is made up of cinders.  It was interesting to see how the vegetation had grown over the vast ocean of volcanic rock.  We even spotted a thistle, an invasive species, which was possibly brought in on a visitor’s shoe.

We attended the Ranger led walk into Indian cave.  The cave is actually a lava tube formed when the crust of the hot lava flow hardened as it cooled and then the lava continued to flow away leaving a hollow area.  All lava tube ceilings collapse eventually but none have collapsed since this area became a national monument in 1924 (fortunately for us).  We learned the name for the different types of lava – “pahoehoe” is very fluid lava flowing smoothly, and “a - a” is lava that is more rubble-like.  Both words originate from Hawaii.

After the tour with the Ranger we continued on to explore two other caves.  Boy Scout cave had a low ceiling and was pitch black inside but fortunately we had come prepared with torches.  Beauty cave was taller with lots of space to stand up.  We were also told there are 11 species of bats at this park but we never saw any.

Again we had thunderstorms in the late afternoon and evening.