We drove down to Craters of the Moon NM from Arco around noon. The Craters was designated a NM in 1924 and has been expanded four times since. We stopped at the visitor center at the park entrance. We collected our 40thPassport Stamp, explored the exhibits, and watched the park movie. We learned something we did not expect, that the lava fields of Craters of the Moon are related to the geothermal formations in Yellowstone! Twenty million years ago, a hot spot in the mantle appeared near what is the border of Idaho and Oregon. That hot spot has been slowly moving east (2 inches per year) to its present position under Yellowstone. As it moved east, a series of super volcanoes have erupted so strongly that they blasted out the Snake River Valley out of the early mountain ranges. The caldera in the Craters area is from between 6 and 10 million years ago. The current lava fields and cones are along a 52 mile fissure called the Great Rift. The youngest lava in the park is from 2000 years ago.
We drove the 7.2 mile loop road and hiked the 5.5 miles of trails at the various overlook (only took 4 hours). The landscape is stark in most places with various types of lava formations. But it is very interesting with the different types of lava formation. This is very similar to El Morro NM in New Mexico.
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| Entrance sign |
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| Lava Formation |
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| Leslie climbing the Giant Cinder Cone |
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| Lava Field |
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| Tree Impressions in the lava |
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| Lava Tube |
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