Today we reluctantly left our amazing Shabbos camping location at Magic Reservoir and drove North and East to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The monument preserves a number of lava flows, the youngest of which are about 2,000 years old.  We first visited the spatter cones:

Looking down into the spatter cone:

The terrain is other-worldly, and was used for lunar surface training for the Apollo astronauts:

We hiked up to view a couple larger cinder cones:

Pumice is highly aerated, so it’s much lighter than you might expect.  Some pumice even floats!

Looking into another spatter cone:

Next we drove out to the trailhead for a lava cave:

We explored a short section.  The kids are off to the left exploring a tight little side passage:

In the visitor center parking lot, Trish befriended our neighbor:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger books and received their patches:

While Trish made a late lunch, I took the kids to another trailhead for a short hike:

It’s easy to imagine the lava flowing across the land:

Eventually, wind-borne soils settle into crevasses and plants begin to grow:

This 3” long praying mantis blended right in:

After leaving the monument, we drove South and West to overnight at a truck stop in Bliss, Idaho.  See the trip map for driving details.

Update: The kids produced a podcast for today’s adventure:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download