Camping in the lava fields of Craters of the Moon
We woke pretty early to get a start on the driving for the day which would be long and we wanted to get through Salt Lake hopefully before the traffic volumes grew. We wound our way through the Fish Lake Range and onto Hwy 15. From 15 we headed NW on a connector that brought us back to I-15 right around Provo. We cruised 15 through Utah and into Idaho. At Blackfoot we took Hwy 26 over to Atomic City, Arco, and finally Craters of the Moon National Monument.
We pulled in at 4 p.m. and questioned our sanity of camping in a lava field on a 95+ degree day but we were too tired to keep driving and were afraid campsites would be filling up soon elsewhere if we took off on a quest. We hung in the shade for a bit eating chips and salsa then a big salad while we waited for the sun to get low. As it set we took off on our hike, up the North Crater Rim Trail to the Big Craters, the Snow Cone and Spatter Cones. It was a surreal hike along the crater rim and looking down into the craters and cones at the end. The Snow Cone did indeed have snow in the crater in the middle of the summer in the desert. By the time we had arrived there it was getting dark so we hiked the roadway back about 2 1/2 miles in the moonlight.
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| The volcanic landscape | Walking acroos the lava flow |
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| Standing under the moon at Craters of the Moon | The Snow Cone and Spatter Cones |
On to Day 9...
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