Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID

We left our campsite early in the morning for Craters of the Moon, to try to beat the heat. It was 1.5 hr drive through arid landscape. We passed signs for the Idaho National Lab's Experimental Breeder Reactor, "the world's first nuclear power plant". The signs advertised free entrance to the Atomic Museum. I wished we had time to check that out, maybe on my next trip to this area.

First stop was the Robert Limbert Visitor Center, where we viewed exhibits on how the volcanic landscape in this area came about, got my national parks passport stamped, and signed up for a ranger led tour of the Indian Tunnel caves that was scheduled to begin in about 30 minutes. To visit the caves, each of us had to get a permit and attest to the fact that we had not gone into any other caves or underground structures wearing the shoes and clothing we had on. This was to protect bats in the caves from white nose syndrome.

We then drove to the trailhead about a mile away. We were just in time as the group had started walking on the trail. The ranger gave us a lot of interesting information, pointed out various features, rock formations, plants and wildlife.

The highlight of the tour was at the end where we were allowed to go into the collapsed tunnel, climbed over and under rocks to come out of a smaller hole on the other side. Quite an experience, definitely not for those with mobility issues.

After the tour, Debi and I got back into the RV to explore other parts of the park, most of the features have interesting names. We went up the very steep Inferno Cone, it was an exhilarating experience, had to stop every few feet up to catch my breath and rest the legs, great views but very windy at the top.

We also hiked the Devil's Orchard and Splatter Cones trails and part of the North Crater trail, with interesting white plants that carpeted the gravel ground. This landscape feature is a buckwheat cinder garden.

The National Monument has a campground with sites spread among the lava rocks, available on a first come first served basis. Pretty cool; I would have liked to camp there but it would have been difficult to get a site.