Things To Do In Idaho: Craters of the Moon Nat'l Monument

While traveling to Idaho this Thanksgiving, our family decided to take a day trip out to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  It is located about 90 miles east of Idaho Falls, Idaho on Hwy 20.  The park encompasses volcanic formations that are as recent as 2,000 years ago.  The sheer desolation and rawness of the place was awe inspiring.    

Given the park's remoteness and the fact it was the day before Thanksgiving, we were the only souls in the park.  The solitude was amazing.  

Here the wife and kids pose in front of Inferno Cone.

The harshness of the terrain is contrasted by Lost River Mountain range in the background.

Our next stop was at the spatter cones.  These were formed when globs of lava were spit out of a vent to form a nice conical shape around it.

The vent is deep.  When we explained what these vents were, the kids kept worrying we would be blasted with an eruption.

The park also has some very interesting heat and cold tolerant plants.  The ground temperatures can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.  These plants are super hardy.

Here you can get a sense of the scale of this crater wall we descended along the Tree Molds Trail.  After returning to the trailhead we walked the Broken Top Loop.

The loops has a variety of interesting volcanic features.  It took a few moments to figure out what we were looking at.

Here you can see a "lake" of lava that has cooled.  Interestingly, this finger of the lake at the base of the hill marks the site of a vent that created Broken Top Cinder Cone.  The vent sprayed cinders into the air and the prevailing wind at the time blew them to the north east of the vent to create the hill.

There are a lot of limber pines growing on the north face of Broken Top.

Here is an overlook with a view to the east.  The volcanic flows and vent features span over 52 miles of central Idaho.

The kids were good sports except for a few less exciting parts of the trail.

Here the kids are posing in front of a lava bomb.  Notice its distorted shape.  It would have been hurled out of a vent as liquid lava.  While in the air it would form a teardrop shape.  You can see where the impact of hitting the ground compressed the bomb and formed a lateral crease.  Then as it came to a rest on its side while semi-solid, its 'tail' sagged with gravity.

There are some amazing color contrasts in the park as well.

 Here the purple crust of the lava flows contrasts the dark cinder cone behind.  

We found the collapsed roof of a lava tube and were compelled to explore.

If you explore a lava tube, be sure not to hit your head.  The roof is very unforgiving.

The kids enjoyed exploring the unique features.

At the end of the day, they were ready to go home.

The great thing about Craters of the Moon is that access is free and the trails are open as long as the service road is not covered in snow.  The only drawback was that the park had a perplexing attitude biased against humans which we discovered on our last hike.  Other than that, the solitude and unique landscape of the place was a great way to clear the mind and find awe in nature's creations.