Craters of the Moon Idaho

Lava camping

After sliding out of Teton Canyon we made our way west towards Craters of the Moon (COTM) National Monument. The rain continued and it was also a cold day so we decided to plug in for the night at a town called Arco. The most we can say about Arco is on July 17, 1955 it was the first community in the world to be lit by electricity powered by atomic power. It also had a perfectly comfortable RV park for the night and good wifi.

Cinder cone

The rain continued the next day as we drove the 20 miles to COTM. We set up at the campground paying the $10 per night fee and went off to explore the visitors centre. We were about to get a volcano education. COTM formed between

North Crater

15,000 and 2,000 years ago as lava flowed from an 80km long rift creating a 1,600 square km lava field. Our view of a volcano was what is called a stratovolcano (think Mt Fuji) but as we learned a volcano is basically a crack in the earth that allows magma to flow to the surface. COTM contains cinder cones and shield volcanos. After the visitors centre we hit the trail climbing a cinder cone, explored lava fields and escaped the weather by exploring a lava tube (Buffalo Cave).



Uplifted lava, North Crater behind

The next day was more exploration starting with a climb to some spatter cones (these are formed during the dwindling stage of the lava flow) then onto the top of the large North Craters. We then went to a Ranger talk and cave tour. The Ranger discussed the Indian history and their use of the caves. We observed different types of lava that typically have Hawaiian names such as A á, pronounced ah ah, the sound you would make if you walked on it with bare feet. Any exploration of this area would be extremely slow due to the sharp lava and difficult due to a lack of water.

Lava tube, Indian Cave

Spatter cones

The COTM was a great place to visit despite the bad weather. After two days of camping in lava fields we headed to Boise to give Symi some ‘kid time’.

Another Junior Ranger badge being awarded.

Pahoehoe lava, Hawaiian for rope