Thursday morning we were all up so we could load up the cars and make the almost 2 hour drive to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The campground is only first come first serve, so we wanted to make sure and be able to claim a spot that would offer us a little bit of afternoon shade.
Craters of the Moon was my favorite place we visited on our journey, mainly due to the incredibly odd scenery. Southern Idaho is full of igneous rock that was formed during the tectonic uplift surrounding Noah's Flood. The Craters of the Moon lava field (and a couple others in Eastern Idaho) stick out in stark contrast to all the other landscape, however. They were clearly formed after Noah's Flood, along what scientists call Idaho's "Great Rift Zone". It's essentially a crack(s) in the Earth's crust and magma was allowed to come to the surface. The difference compared to the Cascade volcanic range on the Pacific Northwest Coast, however, is that gases were not typically held back under enormous pressure. The lava was typically free to flow across the landscape and thus did not result in large stratovolcano building. Instead Craters of the Moon is filled with acres of lava, conduits, spatter cones, cinder cones, and lava tubes.
After setting up camp we were determined to take advantage of the day, even though it was very hot. We only had one day to explore. We decided to base our hiking and exploring off the short 7 mile loop road that winds through the Park. There is plenty of longer hikes you can do (such as hiking to tree molds) but it just wasn't on our itinerary as we are adjusting to having a toddler with us. So our first stop was Inferno Cone. Amber, Adelaide, and I hiked up to the top. The strong wind was a nice break from the heat that was made worse by the black lava rock and cinder.
Just a short jaunt from Inferno Cone is the Spatter Cone area. The Park Service has a couple short trails leading into the cones and you are able to look down into the deep throat of these volcanic formations. Most scientists believe spatter cones form when there is just enough gas trapped in the lava and it has the right viscosity to "spatter" out in mini eruptions. Not as violent as a stratovolcano, but not just oozing out peacefully either.
Our next stop was to one of the cave areas. We made the hike out to Indian Tunnel. It's one of the easier lava caves you can explore, which has several skylights. It was easier to explore this one with my parents and while I had a baby on my back.
By the time we finished up in the cave area it was getting into the late afternoon. We decided to make one more quick stop at the Devil's Orchard area before we headed back to camp. That evening we tried to stay cool, cook dinner, and celebrated Amber's birthday. We struggled to fall asleep with the heat, but we eventually did, knowing we had a long day ahead of us in the morning.
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