Since my last writing, we have left Yellowstone and explored Idaho which has been very interesting. We’ve seen some of the state before but this time we took a little more time. We stopped at a few towns along the way – mainly to take pictures of temples (there are lots of them in this area being so close to Utah). The one below is in Twin Falls, ID. We also stopped at an old fashioned root beer drive in called Frostop. We had root bear floats and enjoyed the small-town atmosphere.
The biggest adventure of yesterday was the Craters of the Moon national monument. When Andy first expressed interest in it I thought – “ok – just humor him. It shouldn’t take that long”. But as we approached the entrance we saw some of the park from the road. It looked like a vast landscape of charred ruins. We learned that this is the site of lots of volcanic activity thousands of years ago and it left the land desolate and black. But, life (as it always does) has found a way into the crumbled rock and lava. You see plants growing out of it and even animals have come to live there and survive. It’s its own ecosystem and when you start to explore it, it becomes more and more interesting.
The best part was the caves. These are actually lava tunnels that you can explore. You enter the caves climbing down rock piles, similar to those we’ve seen at Yosemite. It can be a bit dangerous but as long as you’re careful, it’s a lot of fun. The first cave was the Dewdrop cave which wasn’t very big but it was really neat and the light inside was quite artistic the way it played on the rocks. The second one we explored was the Indian Tunnel. This one is unique because you can walk all the way through it and not need a flashlight because parts of the roof have collapsed to make skylights. There was one part that was almost completely dark, though and we heard bats above us. When we got to the end it was a huge pile of rocks to climb up and we noticed that there was too much of a gap between the rocks and the edge of the opening so we worried that we’d have to go back to get out. But the map of the cave clearly showed an exit. So we climbed the pile and realized that the cave went on afterward – this was just a collapse to climb over. It was such an adventure and when we finally did come to the end, the cave became narrow and raised up to the roof where there was just a small hole to climb out of. Once we did we looked around and didn’t see any trail – just a wide expanse of black rocks. Then, we saw the sign telling us to follow the rock markers back. We ended up walking back over the length of the cave over the lava. What a weird feeling that was to be in the middle of all that where all you could see around you was black bumpy rocks. It was vast.
By the time we were done – it was way past our dinner time so we headed to Twin Falls – about 84 miles away. The best part was that it was sunset and a beautiful night. Both Andy and Vienna drove along with a gorgeous sunset all the way and a cool breeze– the colors were beautiful and we all just had a lovely tranquil feeling.
We are now in Twin Falls getting ready for our last day on the road. We’re going to see Nevada and then head home through California. I’m sure we still have some adventures left ahead of us.
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