The second stop we made on Tuesday was to Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It was about 1.5 hours from Shoshone falls, and a place that had fond memories for me as a young 12 year old girl. I didn’t remember much, but did remember walking on a pathway where all you could see in every direction was lava rock. I was really excited for the kids to see it.
Panorama of some of the lava rock before entering the park.
We stopped at the visitors center first for bathroom breaks and to get a map of the park.
Then we were able to enter the park and explore. If I remember right it took us about 4 hours to see everything in the park that we wanted to.
We went on pretty much every single “short hike” that the park had, but did pass up some of the longer ones that would take several hours to all day.
The kids loved learning about the different plants, animals, and vegetation as we went along the trail.
Super Daddy! I teased him he looked like a super hero with his “cape” stapped to his back (aka: Jamison who needed some shade!)
One of our favorite stops was to a big hill that was made completely out of lava dirt. It had practically nothing growing on it and was pitch black. The kids and Adam loved hiking to the top while I stayed down below to pump a bottle for Jamis. Such is the life of a nursing Mamma.
Next we did a short hike to this crater where you could see the hole the lava came up through.
We finished off the day by taking a fairly long hike out to some Lava tube caves. I’m pretty sure this was the location I was remembering as a 12 year old girl because there was literally lava rock for as far as the eye could see. So amazing!
Next up – pictures from inside the lava caves.