Creatures of the Moon

Today Victoria and I went on a 5th Grade field trip to Craters of the Moon National Monument. We packed up all the grub we could fit in the ice chest (most of which came home in the same state it went in!) and headed to school. Due to an overabundance of parents and an underabundance of busses, the parents were told we "could" drive, but the kids would all go on the busses. My co-worker, Luis, and I headed for his truck, but before we could escape the kids and noise, they stopped us and told us that they had decided to let the kids ride with parents in cars. So we had his son and Victoria in the truck, which definitely made the trip more fun!

We headed out across the "desert" (yes, we live in a "desert" area, although it is more like tundra or something than a "sand and camels" desert), past Atomic City and through Arco (which proudly proclaims itself the first city powered by nuclear energy) (and also the city with the most 3-headed kids) (j/k) and finally to Craters of the Moon.

Evidently, back in the 40's or 50's, someone decided that is what the moon looked like. Maybe before that. Boy, were they wrong! But, it's a cool place. Lots of A'a (pronounced ah-ah) and Pahoehoe (pa-ho-ho), which are lava formations, if you ever encounter that question on Jeopardy! Also the largest open volcano crater (see the picture of Victoria and the pano at the top) on the North American Continent (isn't it amazing how every national park finds something to be the "mostest") and plenty of lava tubes, aka caves. So we hiked up and down hills to look at filled-in craters, lava formations, and then across a large lava flow to climb through the caves. It was actually quite fun! Victoria had a blast.

It must have been a lot of hiking, because the kids slept all the way home on the backseat of the truck. We stopped a couple of times on the way back for "stretch and soda" breaks to keep awake. So, if anyone ever comes to Idaho to visit, that is always something we can put on the agenda. It's only about 90 minutes from us!