Have you ever been to the moon? A vast majority of you would answer “no” to that question. Side note – if you have been to the moon, send me a pic and I will insert it into this post. For the rest of you who have not, boy oh boy do I have a place for you. It is called Craters Of The Moon National Park.
Craters Of The Moon National Park (COTM) is located just outside of Arco, Idaho. Fun Fact – Arco was the first city in the entire world whose electricity was solely generated from nuclear power. The address for COTM is for Arco, Idaho. However, that is only the mailing address. The entrance to the park is 18 miles away at Craters Loop Road. Please see the map below to get directions.
Once you turn onto Craters Loop Road, you will come to the Visitors Center almost immediately. In here you can use the restroom, learn more about the history of the land and get a permit to go into the caves. There are multiple caves located on the park grounds and you can explore them all. Please be advised, the ground is unstable, rocks may fall, some spaces are tight squeezes and you will have to climb on loose rock to enter or exit some of them.
Also, if you have been into a cave in the past 10 years, do not bring anything you had with you when you went to the last cave. There is cross-contaminated fungi that will kill the bats and they are serious about protecting them. So, leave behind any gear you had with you on your last cave adventure. We were all wearing the same hiking boots that we wore into Mammoth Cave, so we were unable to venture into the numerous caves onsite. That’s okay though, we had plenty to do.
The cost to enter this park is only $10 per car load. It is very reasonable, especially with how well maintained the roads, sidewalks, trails and bathrooms were kept. This park is a bargain. Another note, if you venture to National Parks often, get the National Parks Pass. It is $80 for one year and it is a definite savings. Between the parks we visit while we are in Idaho, we will make our $80 back and that does not include the plethora of other parks we will visit while out west.
Before we get into the interior of the park, you may be wondering why it is called Craters Of The Moon? Good question. Thousands of years ago, miles and miles of lava oozed up from deep cracks that stretch for 52 miles. This entire national park is basically one big lava field. It is filled with lava formations across the surface, cones where lava shot out of, lava tubes, lava lakes and caves formed from the lava. Some areas have trees and bushes. However, there are some areas that look completely dead and desolate, complete with crater looking formations that will make you think you are on the moon.
When you pay at the park entrance, be sure that you pick up a loop map. This is a map that displays the routes and trails as well as describes some of what you may see. One point of note, at the beginning of each trail, there is commonly a brown and white sign board that tells you the name of the trail, the distance, elevation and other key figures. Pay attention to them as they will tell you what you are about to be in for if you proceed. There is a lot of walking and hiking to be done at this park.
We bypassed the first trail, North Crater Trail, since it was about 2 miles in one direction and did not loop. We wanted to ensure we were able to see as much of the park as possible, so we stayed on Craters Loop Road until we came to Devil’s Orchard, which was named by a visiting minister who said this was a garden fit for the Devil himself. Throughout this area you learn about the types of plants and trees that can grow in this environment, like Limber Pine and Rabbitbrush. You also learn about the lichens that are on the lava rocks. These brightly colored organisms break the rocks down into soil.
From there we drove onto the area where you get an up close and personal view of cones. One is called the Inferno Cone. If you climb to the top, just know you will ascend 164 feet in about 1/2 a mile. It is steep but not treacherous. It is like walking up a very steep sidewalk. Most of you will have burning legs and be a little winded by the time you get to the top. But it is worth it. At 6181 feet above sea level, you get a grand view of a large swath of the park. You can walk around and see 360° of park beauty.
After you descend, you will take a short drive (like 1/10th of a mile) to 2 different cones you can see down in. The first one is just called Spatter Cone and the second one is called Snow Cone. Spatter cones, in general, are like small volcanoes that are formed when molten lava is thrown into the air and it lands forming a cone outside of the opening in the ground. So, technically, Snow Cone is also a spatter cone, but they named it as such because it looks like there is snow at the bottom of it. There were no signs saying what it actually is. It looks like snow but it is likely molten rock that hardened with a lot of metal content. Nonetheless, still looks cool.
Once you leave here, you will come to a point where you can stay on the loop or turn right and go towards a direction that the sign states as “Tree Molds.” We turned right and I suggest that you do as well. We did not actually check out the tree molds. There was another trail, called the Broken Top Loop Trail that started at the same spot as the Tree Molds Trail. The Broken Top Loop Trail had more to see, so that is the direction we proceeded. This trail is almost 2 miles long and has one place where the grade is up to 62% (32° angle). This trail takes you over, under and around the youngest volcano in the area.
Along the trail you will come to the Big Sink Overlook. This will show you where lava formed a lake or lava pond, a levee and where the lava broke through to form lava tubes and miles of lava fields (flows). It also gives you another elevated view of a different part of the park.
Continuing on around the trail loop and you will eventually come to a place where you can proceed on the Wilderness Trail or return back to the parking lot. The Wilderness Trail sign said to bring food, water, flashlights, etc and make sure someone knows you are here. That was a little more than we were planning on for an afternoon outing, so we headed back to the car. And what a great time it was heading back. We actually walked over lava tubes. These are places where the lava broke through the surface, the top part cooled into rock and formed tubes or tunnels for the lava to keep flowing.
One item of note, the lava tubes and lava rocks are more fragile than you would think. There are route markers guiding you from one place to another, stay by the markers. You need to understand that you are walking over tubes that may be 6 inches high or 16 feet high. The markers tell you where it is safe to walk. If you go off the trail, you run the risk of the ground collapsing from under you. It is not a very big possibility. But why take the chance.
Along the way you will come by Buffalo Caves. You can hike down and explore if you wish. The path takes you straight through the center and to the other side. As stated before, we could not explore due to bringing hiking boots that we used at Mammoth Cave. You continue walking on and next to lava tubes. We came to one spot where it actually looked like an underground dwelling human was looking at us; pale white face back in the shadows of a small lava tube cave. It was only white coloring on a rock, but it looked creepy.
Once we left this area, we got back on the loop and headed to the last stop, which was simply referred to as the Cave Area. From the parking lot all you see is miles and miles of lava fields. There are lava rocks for as far as the eye can see. There is one path called the Caves Trail. It is about a mile long and the ups and downs are not too bad. Along the way you will encounter Dewdrop Cave, Beauty Cave, Boy Scout Cave and Indian Tunnel. The trail is shaped like a Y with Dewdrop Cave being the crux of the Y. We ventured towards Indian Tunnel instead of the other 2 caves.
Indian Tunnel is a place that was used by the Shoshone for shelter, a source of water while traveling through the lava fields and, it is thought, that this also held sacred properties because of the stone circles outside of the mouth. You will come to some metal stairs that will allow you to descend partially, then you need to climb down rocks. If you decide to walk through the whole tunnel, you will exit about 800 feet away. There are a couple of huge holes in the roof, where the rocks collapsed at some point in the past, that will give you enough light to see through the whole tunnel. At the end, you will have to climb rocks at a rather steep grade and exit through a small opening. We explored one end and the other, but did not go through the middle of the tunnel because we heard bats and were worried about contamination.
After Indian Tunnel, we headed back through the lava fields and jumped back inside Ebony. We finished driving the rest of the loop, which leads back to the main entrance. We stopped off for a final bathroom break but the Visitors Center was closed. It was not a waste though. On the side walk we saw a mama deer and two baby dear. It was nice to see young life in this rather desolate environment. As we drove off, we saw a magnificent sunset behind the mountains with the rays spray painting the sky.
I expected to have fun because I am a Nomad, this was an adventure and I was with my family. However, I did not expect to like it as much as I did. What a wonderful day. I suggest that if you are anywhere in the area, this place is worth driving to and visiting. Safe Travels.
