On Labor Day we drove from Arco down to Craters of the Moon, a National Monument that is in the middle of a huge lava field along the the Great Rift, which is a fault line in South Central Idaho in the Snake River Plains area. The last time the lava flowed in this area was approximately 2,000 years ago, and previous flows were about 2,000 years apart - so at some point in the next 1,000 years lava will probably be flowing upward through new cones and out onto the area. If you are wondering if we stop to get a picture of the sign just for the blog - well no, we stopped because there was a geocache (in Barb’s hand) there!
Our trip through the park was based upon making sure that we stopped at the 7 specific viewing areas in order to document a specific feature and thereby get credit for our virtual geocache for the day - - a lot of work for one find!
The first stop was the Visitor’s Center with some basic information about the park. Second stop was the North Crater Lava Flow trail, which was about 1/2 mile round the loop. There were several distinction types of lava flows that were evident along the trail as well as these crater wall fragments that would have been part of a cinder cone wall that give way under new lava flows and these fragments floated in the molten lava until the lava cooled enough to deposit them at this point. We quickly found out that on the loop trails the spot that we had to go to was about 1/2 of the way around, no matter which way you went - these geocachers are finicky people wanting to make sure you get the FULL effect of being at the site. The third site was the Devil’s Orchard, and the trail around had you looking at how fragile the ecosystem was and how people could impact the area and why staying on the trail was so important.
The fourth stop was at the bottom of the Inferno Cone. These cones were built by successive explosions of ash and magma which was then deposited around the mouth of the vent. While it wasn’t required to climb the cone for the geocache, the trail was there and it looked like it would be doable. What you don’t realize when standing there is that isn’t the top of the one, but rather just a plateau and once you reach that top, you have MORE to go!
But once you get to the top, the view is terrific. And so was the wind, which is why the hat is being held onto very tightly. We figured the wind was about 30 mph at the top - a really stiff breeze. The tree that can be seen here is at the top of the cone and is hanging on to the side. Naturally we have a lot of pictures of our trips, in fact, 2 different sets. The
first section of pictures includes the first four stops.
The
fifth stop was at the Spatter Cones, so named because the they form during the end stages of the volcanic activity and the molten lava is thrown up as blobs and spatters all around. This shot is looking down into the center of this cone at the throat of the tube that brought lava to the surface.
Adjacent to the Spatter Cone was the Snow Cone, so named because snow remains in the throat of this cone throughout the summer - the sun never reaches into this area. We were there on September 7th, and at 6,000 feet it will not be long before snow starts to fall again!
Our 6th stop was at the Broken Tip Loop trail - actually that wasn’t where we should have been, but one of the coordinates was entered incorrectly and it wasn’t until we were half of the way around on the 1.8 mile loop that Barb realized she’d made a mistake.
But we did get to see some interesting geology on the trail including this area where the surface of the lava field had collapsed and we had to figure out a what to get around the large resulting hole in the ground. We also did the loop backwards - which isn’t anything new for us!
The last stop brought us to an area where there were several lava caves formed from old lava tubes. When we arrived at the parking lot, the GPS indicated the particular cave we wanted was only 0.3 miles away - as the crow flies. Unfortunately, we’re not crows and the actual trail length was probably twice that. We figured it was well over 5 miles of hiking this day in order to get to all of the places, but it was certainly worth it - the area is simply incredible. Since we had already done the walk in the dark down the lava tube in Oregon, we didn’t venture down any of the three tubes that the public can venture into - including this one, Indian Tunnel which can be traversed with the need of flashlights. The
second set of pictures include stops 5 through 7.
We had a great time and would certainly recommend that if in the southern Idaho area, you make the time to go and visit this unusual area.