Craters of the Moon National Monument - August 28

Craters of the Moon is located in Idaho's Snake River Plain.  The area is also known as the Great Rift volcanic zone, a line of weakness in the Earth's crust caused by the shifting of tectonic plates.  It is considered to be one of the best presevered volcanic and flood basalt areas in the continental US.  The unique landscape was formed by eruptions that occurred from 15,000 to only 2,000 years ago, making geologists sure that it is likely to spew lava again soon.  The plain is actually 5,900 feet above sea level, which I noticed made it much harder for me to breath during the hikes (or maybe I'm just out of shape).  When you venture into the park you are surrounded with lava rocks, giving you a surreal senseation that you are on another planet (hence the name).

Now I understand why they call it Craters of the Moon.  This sure doesn't look like the surface of our planet.



That's one small step for a man...

one giant leap for mankind!

Entering a lava tube.  These caves were formed when the outer layer of a stream of flowing lava cooled to rock while the lava inside continued to flow, much like the freezing of the surface of a river.

Tamara making her way out of a tube through which millions of gallons of molten lava once flowed

A spatter cone, formed by lava spraying out of a vent and building upon itself to create a mound.

The nicest restaurant in Arco. I'm sure the fact that it is also the ONLY restaurant in Arco had nothing to do with Pickle's Place receiving this distinction.

After eating a burger and some famous Idaho potatoes you'll need a chair this big to sit in!

Tomorrow we start the most exciting leg of the entire trip.  In the morning we drive for 4 hours to Grand Teton National Park.  From there we'll go to Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, and Badlands National Park.  We'll be roughing it for a week, and only once we get to Minneapolis, which is an almost 1,500 mile drive from here, will we be able to put up more photos.  Bye for now!