Once in a Blue Moon

Wow – trying to pick cute titles like I was taught in blog school is getting harder, and the titles are cornier.  But this post is about Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, and it really is once in a blue moon that we find a new adventure in the western states.  This trip has shown us that we could ideally take 1-2 months and spend it in each state and province before finally feeling like we’ve seen everything we are interested in!
I have said this before but there is beauty and awe to be found in all sorts of geographical locations.  It just depends what a person finds awe inspiring in the way of scenery.  Sometimes you need to be very open minded, and look for subtle differences form another area that was visited.  I can say that being from Saskatchewan.  I cannot tell you how many people say driving through Saskatchewan is boring.  My only response is open your eyes, get to know the place.  The beauty of the fields, the vast openness of the plains, and if you dare to go south, the splendour of mountains such as in the Cypress Hills area.  The point of this being that there is beauty in all forms of nature and you should always pause to enjoy that.
Craters of the Moon is an ocean of lava flows, some now covered in sage brush, that covers over 600 square miles.  Thanks to the National Park service we were able to drive in and around the area, as well as hike many trails that combined numerous photo opps with some much needed exercise and new adventures!
This was going to be one of those 2 night/1 day stays, but quickly turned into a 3 night stay, to ensure we had visited all areas of the park available, and any other area attractions we found.
The “organized” walks you can take in the park include the  North Crater Flow, Devil’s Orchard Nature, Inferno, Snow and Spatter Cones, Tree Molds, Big Sink Overlook and the Caves.

We saved the caves and the orchard for the second day.We might be enthusiasts but we aren’t athletes!  LOL  The caves were a new experience for us, and thankfully one of them was large, had natural light, and no bats. The other ones were crawl in and use headgear, flashlights, etc. Although we didn’t go in those, both Don and I attempted to get close and at least take a few pictures.

It might sound simple to say that acres of black lava rock was interesting, but words cannot describe the uniqueness of this area.  The photos may help, but this is yet another place you need to see to appreciate (kind of like Saskatchewan - get it?).

We stayed in nearby Arco at Mountainview RV Park.  It was a great hitching place, and we would not hesitate to stya there again.  HOWEVER – the National Park has a picturesque campground as well, so cheap almost free, that I think we would visit as well.
We made a short day trip to nearby Ketchum as well, in hopes of finding a public hot springs to visit.  We did but one was full of silt from a recent fire, and the other was closed for the same reason.  Ketchum and nearby Hailey may need to be re-visits in the future…
This morning sees us leaving to visit West Yellowstone and check up on Old Faithful.  I’ll let you know how that goes:)