Arco, Idaho - Craters of the Moon National Monument 9/11 - 9/14 2020 Travel Tour

                                                From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 
                                                             Tim and Linda Bunyan

Craters of the Moon National Monument near Arco, Idaho: RV Campground, first come, first serve.  We arrived and instructed to drive around the campground to choose a site. 

It was afternoon and we were pleased to find a pull-through with an amount of privacy so we pulled in. 

The cost is $8.50 per night with a self-pay envelope station to use with our Senior Pass for half price as this is a National Monument and Preserve.

Our RV site nestled in lava walls and pinyon pine trees

The visitor center was covid closed, but a map is given to visitors from a park ranger at the front door with a table filled with information on the park.

Here is Woodstock checking out our site and Tim setting up the BBQ.

Inferno Cone, steep 1/2 mile walk.

Cinder cones form from gas-rich volcanic froths that erupt and are carried high into the air and then piles into a mound.

The craters of Craters of the Moon are of volcanic origin.  Not from one volcano but from a series of deep fissures known as the Great Rift.  15,000 years ago lava welled up from the Great Rift to produce this vast ocean of rock.  Simular future eruptions are lifely.

One of the world's largest basaltic cinder cones.

Spatter Cone form from ejected globs of tacky lava

Big globs of lava blown out of cinder cones harden in-flight forming many lava shapes

2 miles hike through Devils Orchard with lava fragments in a sea of cinders.

These blobs of volcanic lava stopped spouting thru the air about 2500 years ago well know here for beautiful volcanic features.

This photo is to show the 52-mile long fissure called the Great Rift.  Tim and I hiked up to the top edge for a great view 

The Great Rift is one of only two such features in the world!

The unusual geologic features through the 380,000 acres of the Craters of the Moon are the largest, deepest, and most recent volcanic rift system in the United States.

Woodstock is done with all the lava!

We've many good hiking trails all around this National Monument and Preserve.

The same hot lava flows that destroyed everything in its path, today protect some of the last remaining islands of natural Antelope bitterbrush, sagebrush steppe vegetation on the Snake River Plain. 

Time to go!  We are headed 70 miles northwest to Meadows RV Park in Ketchum, Idaho!