The National Monument park for Craters of the Moon is very nicely developed with paved, sometimes elevated walkways around this volcanic landscape. The land looks like huge earth-movers shoved piles of wet earth everywhere, and now the muddy mess remains. It’s not mud on closer inspection, but the youngest lava field in the US, except for Hawaii which is actively creating lava like this. Hawaiian names are used to describe the lava shapes seen here. The last eruption here was just 2000 years ago, and the area is dormant but expected to become active again within 900 years. Those numbers reflect many human lifetimes, but are very short time periods when you look at Earth’s geological history.

This is traditional native lands of the Shoshone, and they have oral traditions that indicate ancestral experiences with the violent explosions and more steady eruptions that produced what is seen in this area.

It’s not a stark landscape—there are desert-adapted critters and tough plants that call this area home. Some places are barren of plants, but life finds a way here. Tony says this makes it un-moon-like. Ryan wrote, “I’m not very good at geography; had no clue Idaho was all the way on the moon. lol”

Our first stop was at the North Crater Flow Trail, then we traveled on to Devils Orchard Nature Trail where lots of plants could be closely observed.

Inferno Cone was next and is a steep, short walk up to an excellent view. The rocks are very small, sharp pieces of lava.

Further down the Loop Road, Snow Cone and Spatter Cones are short walks to see what is left of these structures after many years of tromping feet. Many park signs are telling us how humans have affected this landscape to its detriment. “People suck” and “people make mistakes” seem to be the general themes, including the story of park rangers killing hundreds of Limber Pines by removing their “ugly” dwarf mistletoe parasites. Witches brooms are crazy growth areas of a tree that look like big tumors, but are the tree’s response to a parasite like mistletoe. I have a picture of a tree with a witches broom in our recent MN trip. They are cool—not ugly:)

Back to Arco for another night’s stay there.