We spent one day visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument.
This is a huge area that preserves a volcanic area, apparently it has been used as a training area for astronauts. It was a little bit of a drive from where we were staying but an interesting drive. We started off getting warnings on our GPS about a fire along the way, then we kept getting messages about animals on the road. We never saw the fire or the animals even though we got messages about the animals numerous times during the day. The first part of the drive is through farm land with interesting looking barns. They are more like an A-frame than a traditional looking barn. The walls on the side of the barns are buried in dirt and sometimes the roofs had dirt on them.
Many miles of the drive where through the Idaho National Laboratory, apparently where they do lots of nuclear research. You could see building off in the distance but nothing up close.
We got to Craters of the Moon and started our touring for the day.
Our first hike was up part of the North Crater Trail. We passed a couple that were on their way down and they told us it was worth the hike but just remember what goes up must come down. The man kept telling us how beautiful it was and after they passed his wife commented they did not do the entire trail but turned around at the fork and returned. We also turned at the fork and came back. If you continued it became very steep and you go about 1.5 miles across the fields and come out on a very steep trail into another parking lot that would have been several miles back on the road to get to our truck. The walk would take you through the area of the big craters but it was a little rougher that we wanted to try.
We took the Devils Orchard Nature Trail which was only .3 miles and was an a path made for wheelchairs. Lots of trees, lichens on the lava and birds. They had lots educational displays along the way that were interesting to read. We caught one magpie flying around and harvesting a pine cone.
One of the things we learned is how the Lichen break down the lava rock. We saw lots of lime green, white and red lichen.
Along the road we also saw lot of white plants on some of the open areas. They were drawn buckwheat which are some of the first plants to start growing on the lava.
The Snow Cone and Splatter Cone trails are just short walks that have good paths. You can actually see the Inferno Cone from here and it makes you release how far up you have to walk.
At this stop we could see down in the inside of the Snow Cone and see the small splatter cones out in front of us. It was very windy at the top.
We got real ambitions and hiked up the top of the Inferno Cone. It is only .2 miles long, however the average grade is around 14%, you only gain about 164 feet in height during the climb, it is just real steep. The entire hike up is done on cinders that have blown there from eruptions. You don’t see down into a cone when you get to the top as the cone is said to be a little distance away, possible one that we climbed later. The trail up did not look that bad until you get started. We stopped about 1/3 of the way and took a water break, then headed on up. When you get to the top of the first bump on the trail you are starting to think it is not that bad but the second section is steeper only to discover there is a third section you did not see from the ground.
At the top you have very good view of the surrounding land, it was actually fairly flat at the top compared to the climb. On one side there was single tree but it was very windy.
The walk up was windy but the wind at the top was so bad I could not keep my hat on and had to take it off and hook to my camera vest. Bruce managed to keep his hat on for most of the walk on the top but when we got to one side a gust came up and blew his hat off. Fortunately it went away from the edge and landed in an area where there was no wind. After collecting his hat we headed back down.
It was only later in the day when I had propped up one of my feet for something that I discovered my white socks were no longer white, they were black and my legs were several shades darker. Bruce also had collected lots of cinder dust.
The Caves Trail is one that leads out to lava tubes that have formed caves. The caves are undeveloped, no artificial lighting or paved trails. The floors are uneven and in some cases the ceilings are low. Apparently there are also bats in some of the caves. You have to get a permit to enter the caves, they are free they just want to question you to make sure you have not been in any other bat caves in the last 15 years. If so you can not wear or carry anything into these caves that you have previously had in a bat cave. They do no want to spread white nose disease to their bats and it can live for 15 years on clothing or soft materials even if they have been repeatedly cleaned. It takes a 30 minute soak in bleach or alcohol to destroy white nose disease on materials. We got our permit and headed out on the trail.
We talked with one couple that were just coming back from the caves so they filled us in on the details. The first cave we skipped, it required you do some crawling and since neither of us had on long pants, knee pads or gloves we skipped it.
The man we had talked with said he started to climb over the rocks to the cave and quickly gave up, so we just glanced at it and kept going. The next cave up is actually called Indian Tunnel and they have a set of metal steps installed to help you get down to the floor of the tunnel. This a a lava tube that has had collapses in the ceiling which allows natural sunlight to enter in different areas. There were only a few spots where we had to use a flashlight to help guide our walk. Most of the tube is 30 foot hight and 50 foot wide with a length of 800 feet.
When you first enter the cave you get off the metal steps and on to piles of rocks, some of which wobble when you step on them and you use those to get to the floor of the cave.
You can only go a short distance in one direction as there was a big collapse that has that way blocked, but the big opening provides lots of sunlight to help you get adjusted to your surroundings.
We headed off in the other direction, very glad I bought my hiking stick as the floor of the cave is very rough and uneven.
We eventually made it back about 500 feet in the cave, there were a few other collapses that provided light and just one bad area where the flashlights were needed.
We stopped at the 500 foot distance as there was a huge collapse in front of us that would requires us to start climbing over the loose rubble for the remaining 300 feet and some of it was pretty hight. Below is a picture of someone climbing the pile where we stopped.
If you keep going that additional 300 feet you can come out at the other end of the tunnel but there are no steps to help you get back to the top. If you come out at the other end you have to walk across the lava fields to get back to the entrance, they have some markers to help you find you way back. There was a couple in front of us on the return walk and they were telling everyone how bad the walk was across the lava fields as there is not a cleared path you are stepping over deep holes and nothing is smooth.
We did not see any bats but did see lots of white feather on the floor so something flies in the tunnel to eat. We turned around and made out way back to the entrance, climbing back up to the metal steps was a little scary for me as I was worried about one of the rocks wobbling. We made it out fine and I announced we did not need to visit any of the other caves, I had checked the maps we picked up and the other two caves involved lots of low crawling.
A couple of the trails were closed so we did get a chance to explore them, which was fine as we were tired. We headed back to RV stopping for dinner on the way.