Craters of the Moon

To get to Craters of the Moon from Boise, I am supposed to take the 84 southeast to the 20 east through Fairfield and Carey. I have trouble passing places I go to in Boise, because everything is closer together than I think it looks on a map, and I guess I have that problem with the entire state. (But, hey, the speed limit on the Interstate is 75 MPH.) I went flying by Mountain Home and stopped in Glenn's Ferry. I stopped in Glenn's Ferry to go in the Oregon Trail History Center and get a hiking map of the Oregon Trail, which should have given me a clue that I passed my turnoff, since the Oregon Trail is south of Craters of the Moon around Twin Falls. The Oregon Trail History Center was closed, but I took a few pictures at the Three Island State Park.




You must be able to stay in the little cabins during the season and that is the Snake River. Most of the drive there looked like this, several rivers and green, green farms in the middle of golden hills.

It wasn't until I passed Bliss that I realized I went the wrong way, so I turned around and took the 23/96 to Craters of the Moon. This took me through Gooding, Shoshone, and Richfield. I liked Bliss and Gooding and want to go back and take some pictures. The train must have been stopping in Shoshone, because there was a big crowd waiting at the train station.

Boise restored their train depot, which is pretty much around the corner from me and I drive by it all the time, but I haven't been in yet. A restored Union Pacific Railroad steam locomotive, No. 844, a.k.a. "The Living Legend," stopped in Boise on Sunday night as part of a 15-day, three-state tour of the Pacific Northwest. Sunday night I heard it come in blowing it's steam whistle, which sounds very different from the modern train whistling through Simi Valley, and I could even hear the old-time chuga chuga in-between the whistles. This train must have also stopped in Shoshone.

It took about 4 hours to get to Craters of the Moon. One minute I'm looking at sagebrush and gold and the next minute I'm looking at sagebrush and black sharp rock.


Half of the hiking trails were closed because they were resurfacing the road, so I did not do much hiking. That is alright, since I am reminded that I am in terrible shape. The landscape was too bleak for me and kind of creepy, I kept thinking of The Road.





There were several caves. I don't like caves, either, but I went in one just to take a picture. The lava cools and hardens on the outside, but stays hot and keeps moving for miles on the inside, and forms a cave.


Inactive volcanoes created all of the black rock, although they were pretty recently active, only 2,000 years ago. Idaho is also home to the world's largest caldera, an underground supervolcano, although most seem to lump this in with the one in Yellowstone.

The best part of the trip was the two plein air painters I met on my way out.


They just backed the car in and set up their easels.

The trip back was boring, more gold, less green, and one town for almost three hours. I was glad I took the other route there.