Craters of the Moon National Monument

We left French Glen Oregon and drove all the way to Arco, ID (about 10 hours when you don't go on the freeway). We camped in Arco at a great RV place which offered free breakfast (2 large pancakes, 2 eggs and coffee). When we woke up we decided to go back to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The Snake River Valley, that large smile in the southern part of Idaho, was created by the hot spot that is presently under Yellowstone National Park creating craters and moving as the plates moved over 16 million years. Craters of the Moon last erupted 2000 years ago from a 52 mile rift that goes mostly north and south and from which the lava oozed out (as it has many times previously). There are various spatter cones and cinder cones and lots of interpretive walks. This photo is of a 1350 year old limber pine (so named because it can stand the strong winds without breaking its branches), which helped to date the latest flow.

This example of pahoehoe lava, the liquidy type, was just one of many types of lava. There are hunks of crater walls that were pushed along like ice bergs when the lava flowed, a'a, the harder type and cinders.

It was spring in Craters of the Moon too. The flora has developed all sorts of interesting adaptations to the environment. Sage brush sends out large leaves in spring, loses them and replaces them with small leaves for the hot, dry summers. Some plants have no leaves in the summer and replace them with fuzzy stalks which reflect the sun. Sagebrush has a 10' deep tap root and shallow surface roots. Other plants have surface roots that extend a large distance and determine how close other plants can grow. It was blowing hard and quite cool, but we learned a lot about volcanic activity.

This large crater shows the oxidized rock (red) and the rim in the bottom is where the pool of lava was located.

We went back to Arco to pick up Snoopy, noticed the dates each high school class had painted on the rocks above town (dating back to the 30's), and headed for Grand Teton National Park. We drove past lots of installations related to the Idaho National Lab (which does a lot of research related to nuclear energy), past the first (1951) nuclear reactor to produce electricity for homes, through Idaho Springs, and into Grand Teton National Park, with a stop for Bob to play disc golf on a 9-hole course in Teton Village. While he played I contemplated taking the tram to the top but was stopped by the $20 cost and the fact that the top was in the clouds. It's still early in Grand Teton and there was room in all the camp grounds.