CRATERS OF THE MOON
What a crazy place! Three months ago, I'd never heard of the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It's the site of a lot of volcanic eruptions caused by the hot spot that now sits under Yellowstone. They say that one day, Yellowstone will look like Craters of the Moon. All that dark stuff on the map is lava!
Of course, Jared was in heaven, surrounded by lava rocks and real volcanoes. And Ryan was in heaven because we were camping.
We camped in the strangest camp site I've ever seen on Friday night. It was so windy when we were setting up the tent, we had to open the windows to let the wind pass through. Otherwise, it was laying just about flat. The camp sites seemed to have been created by dumping huge amounts of volcanic cinders to fill in the jagged lava rocks. It's not very soft, and it fills up your Crocs really fast. If you ever go, don't wear sandals of any kind!
Friday night we went to two Ranger talks. Zach impressed us all on the Junior Ranger walk by spotting a small animal on the rocks and yelling, "CHIPMUNK!" How'd he know that?
Saturday we went on two Ranger-led hikes. The boys did great for the most part. Zach got carried a lot of the way. We got to go into two lava tubes! How cool is that? Basically they're dark caves where lava rivers used to run.
We wore ourselves out, and I drained the battery in my new camera. I started with a fresh one, and I'd used it for over a week without recharging it, so I thought I'd be fine. Oh well.
We went to the visitor's center to watch a movie and rest up a bit. Jared fell asleep sitting in his chair. I had to nudge Ryan to keep him awake. Meanwhile, crazy Zach, who had been carried on most of the hikes, ran in circles around the video room. The stinker even managed to lock the doors from the inside (we had no idea). We were wondering why no one else came in to watch the movies! A Ranger finally came to investigate and let the crowd in. How embarrassing!
Both boys earned Junior Ranger badges, and Zach stole all the lady Rangers' hearts. One took his hand in hers and asked if he was married yet.
Jared woke up and insisted on one more hike before we left, so I got out the old point and shoot camera and we visited the spatter cones. They're mini volcanoes that form after the violent eruptions have blown off some steam. The lava just splatters out, not very far, and builds a little cone around itself. We didn't have the energy to climb up Inferno Cinder Cone. Maybe we'll have to go back some day, because how cool would it be to say we hiked the Inferno?
We all collapsed into the Jeep and turned toward home. Zach fell asleep before we even got out of the park (and it's not very big!)
Craters of the Moon is in the middle of nowhere, and we drove 70 miles before we found a place to buy dinner (besides 7-11). We scarfed down burgers and fries in a little burger joint in Fairfield. Ryan had been to the town twice before because he has done some engineering for them. He showed us around and told us what projects he'd worked on.
We had a great time, but we're exhausted! We need to rest up before our big trip to Phoenix in 2 weeks!
See photos of our trip here.