We arrived at Craters of the Moon in Idaho and it was unlike anything
I could every imagine. I'm not even sure words can describe it if
you've never seen it before. First it is out in the middle of nowhere
and when you arrive at the campsite you get to choose your site (first
come first serve no reservations) in-between piles of huge, black
boulders and lava rock with literally red coarse sand type dirt. It
is definitely beautiful in it's own way. There is no green anywhere.
The rest of the park is different variations of the same landscape . .
. Rocks, lava, red dirt mounds and mounds of it all, as far as you can
see.
So after finding a site that would fit the trailer and close to the
bathroom, we backed in, Mark jumped out to run to the bathroom and
kale and I started to set up the trailer for the last time on the
trip, only to be quicklystopped as I couldn't get the trailer off the
hitch. So Kaleb and I were brainstorming and sitting in the front og
the car, windows down minding our own business when this nasty little
bee decided to sting Kaleb. Paranoid as I can be sometimes everyone
was put in charge of watching Kaleb for the next 30 minutes or so to
make sure there was no allergic reaction. He was fine and since there
was plenty of light still left in the day, we finished setting up camp
and headed to the visitors center.
We arrived just in time for a little ranger talk and to get some
information about where to start. Now Craters of the Moon looks like
craters in a moon of what you have most likely seen in pictures from
when we landed on the moon. The other cool part is these lava tubes,
where some millions of years ago when this underground volcano fissure
phenomenon was active lava seeped up through the ground cooled, dried,
etc and caused these fun caves to form. There are also some really
desolate hills worth climbing and looking out over the lava beds.
With plenty of daylight and a schedule to keep, we went on our
adventures. Lots of trail were waiting to be seen and lots of caves
to be explored. Oh, and it was hot out. All except one of the trails
were fairly short in the grand sceme averaging about a mile for each
trail we took. The big one was about 8 or so miles and in the heat we
decided to skip that one. Supposedly it connected some of the trails
we were checking out anyway.
As we walked through our first couple trails we tried really hard not
to take a few rocks as we really shouldnt disturb the environment and
if everyone took a rock then there would be no rocks left.
Unfortunately when we hiked up one of the hills to see the amazing
view, a few very cool rocks just jumped into Ksenia's pocket and
arrived back home with us. After each stop we filled up water bottles
and drank them down. It was warm and we didn't want to get dehydrated.
Once we hiked all the trails and climbed the hill it was off to find
the lava tubes and caves and we were out of water.
It turned out to be ok that we were out of water because the lava
tubes were very cool. There were four tubes available to the public
and with the exception of me everyone made it down every tube. I was
not feeling great but made it into two of the four. Mark and the kids
climbed down in one and found big chunks of ice, that's how cold it
was. I sat in the enterance of the cave and stayed nice and cool
while I waited. We all had fun exploring and seeing what these tubes
were all about. Once we finished we really had seen pretty much
everything that was available to the public and it was time to get
back to camp . . . Where we enjoyed our last evening of the trip
playing and laughing.
We started with dinner. We made dinner plus some. I cooked up some
stroganoff and we all enjoyed a little food. However it was our goal
to make very few stops on our last drive which would deliver us to
home, so we cooked. We cooked up a bunch of things we could just eat
on the road and not have to stop for food the next day. We made about
eight or ten pita pizzas along with some hot dogs and sandwiches.
Whatever we had left in our food stores we prepared for the trip home.
It was a long drive (about 10 hours or so) and the more we had to
stop the longer it would take and I knew there was a certain group of
boys waiting for Kaleb to get back. :o). It was all hands on deck and
we got it done and packed for the next day.
As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't feeling great. Our last night at
Yellowstone (which were pay showers), the family graciously let me
take a shower because of this and they skipped it knowing there were
no showers at Craters of the Moon and wouldn't get a shower until
home. So after food was cooked I set up a system to wash hair and take
little sponge baths. We had so much fun giggling and laughing as we
all washed up and felt a little refreshed. The rest of the evening
was fun. The kids were pretending to be Harry Potter and playing
little spells on each other laughing the whole time. It was a really
nice end to our trip.
Next morning it was time to put the trailer away for the last time.
Mark had a few little tears at Yellowstone. It was my turn for some
tears. I couldn't believe our long planned trip was coming to an end
and to make it worse for this mother bear, it was the realization that
this was probably the last big family trip as my babies are getting
big. It was a little bittersweet. We were all ready to be home, in
our own showers and beds and tired of living in the trailer, but it
really has been an amazing trip. After a few more little tears fell,
we all closed up the trailer and hopped in the car for the long drive
home.
