Craters of the Moon

After Yellowstone we headed down to Idaho Falls to check it out. Nice town and your housing dollar goes a lot farther than a lot of other places we have been to. It's mostly a farming community but also has a fair amount of engineers due mostly to the Idaho nuclear research facility that is located here.

While there we spent a day on a side trip to the Craters of the Moon national monument. It's very aptly named as this is one weird, stark landscape created by unique volcanic action. It's not something I would make a special trip for but is worthwhile if your are in the area. Well I guess that means within 100 miles of the area since there's really no reason anyone would be much closer than that.








They are opening a Starbucks on this spot next year.














Tracy, what, where are you going? Don't leave me here!













These are called tree molds. They are left when lava surrounded a tree. The water in the tree cooled the lava enough to leave the imprint of the bark. The imprint, ridges and all are solid rock.