Craters of the Moon

A couple weekends ago we decided to take advantage of one of the last balmy weekends left in fall and took a little mini-vacation to Craters of the Moon. Which, despite it's otherworldly name, is actually in Idaho. Craters of the Moon is a national park where you can explore acres and acres of a huge lava flow. It's really alien looking with black lava formations as far as the eye can see including various kinds of lava, lava tubes, dormant cinder cone volcanoes, and dormant spatter cone volcanoes. So, when early American explorers first came across it, before we had actually been to the moon, many thought it must be similar to what the moon's surface must be like (hence the name.) And in fact, the very first astronaut crew that walked on the moon visited Craters to train before their mission! Actually Craters of the Moon was made thousands of years ago by the same volcanic hot spot that now fuels Yellow Stone. Cool huh?

Walking on a paved pathway through the lava beds. This part of the park is a great example of Aa lava, a Hawaiian word meaning rough.

This is a place I visited with my family as a child and have wanted to come back to ever since. (Because, I'm a bit of an amateur geology nerd. I don't know why I should find feldspar and rhyolite and how they formed so fascinating, but... I do.) However, I wasn't too sure how Brianna would like it, since her idea of a fun "park" usually includes slides and swings.

Bree reading up on the science behind the formation of the park.

To my delight, she thought it was neat and was very intrigued. (I guess having an geology nerd mother and microbiologist father made it kind of inevitable.) She actually surprised me by asking fairly insightful and scientific questions for a 4 year old and we ended up having to have a mini Earth Sciences lesson. After we explained that this was from an old volcano and that it was dried lava she asked what lava was. We told her it was really hot melted rock from inside the earth. Then she wanted to know if the lava would burn her. We said no, it was cooled off into rock now. She thought about that awhile and then said, "If it gets hotter today will the lava melt again?" We said no, it couldn't do that. Then she asked, "Will the lava come back while we're here?" No, we explained, the hot spot that made the lava had moved to a different place. "How did it move?" she asked. Travis and I looked at each other....how do you explain plate tectonics to a 4 year old?

One of the highlights for Brianna was getting to explore the caves, formed when the lava dried around large air pockets, or in the case of lava tubes, when a cooler crust formed around a still molten and flowing river of lava. At first, Bree was a bit intimidated of the bigger caves, since they're very dark. But armed with a flashlight she soon overcame her trepidation and was very proud to make it all the way to the end of a large cave, accompanied by Mom and Dad of course. And naturally, if only because we do think it's so amusing to hear Bree using big, technical words, we had to tell her that exploring caves is called spelunking. So when she came out of the cave she announced, "I'm a spelunker!"

Peeking out at Travis from a small cave.

Bree and I in the "twilight" area of a large cave.

For Noah, his favorite part was walking along the many paved pathways the park had to offer. (Anything to make use of and show off his new skill!)

And even though the trails were often long and windy, in order to march visitors past all the interesting and varied lava features, Noah stubbornly insisted on walking along all by himself. Although, he would sometimes at least allow me to walk along beside him.

Noah and I looking cool in our shades.

Noah seemed to find the whole thing pretty interesting actually, frequently stopping to check things out.

Stepping off the path to examine some of the local flora.

Laying down to get a closer look at some tiny paw prints embedded in the pathway. Which turned out to belong to...

...this little guy! (Okay well, maybe not this exact one but you get it.) Aside from pretty sparse vegetation and a lot of pine trees, this was the most wildlife we saw there. Although, the brochures say there's a herd of deer, small bunnies, and a few species of birds to be found as well. It's pretty amazing though, the last lava flow here was dated to be around 2000 years ago and it's still largely a barren place.

Well, I could go on and on about this subject. But for now I'll just leave you with a few more shots of our trip.

Looking down the throat of a dormant spatter cone volcano.

Pahoehoe (Hawaiian for "ropey") lava.

A large Aa lava bed and a great shot to give you the feel of the landscape there.


Me standing next to the edge of an impressive and voluminous flow of lava. Can't you just imagine what it must have been like when it was molten? It looks like it just barely dried there and was oozing it's way forward just a little while ago.

The three spatter cones of Craters. According to the park info, these are some of the most pristine examples of spatter cone volcanoes in the world.

I love this shot. Bree standing by a lava formation at sunset.

It was a really cool experience and a fascinating place, well worth a visit for any family.