Craters of the Moon, Idaho

Weather has brought us on an unexpected detour for round 2 of the adventure.  The devastating forest fires surrounding the west coast and blowing towards the east, has pushed us towards Idaho and Utah earlier than planned.  Being from southern Ontario, and never exposed to forest fires, it was a real eye opener.  Our hearts felt for the residents of those areas affected.  Passing through and speaking with locals on how it had affected their health and surroundings really opened our eyes to their reality.

Idaho sure did surprise us with its rolling hills, picturesque scenery of golden fields and desert vegetation.  Just beautiful countryside that I am so glad we got to experience!

Where we stayed

We found the Hayspur Fish Hatchery Campground on Campendium: https://www.campendium.com/hayspur-fish-hatchery.  We chose this spot for its location as we wanted to be close to Craters of the Moon.  This is a free campground on BLM land. It has 2 vault toilets, fire rings and lots of campground spots available.  They have a 16 night maximum stay and cell signal.  We stayed 4 nights and it was quiet the whole time we were there.  We also enjoyed the natural trail and walking around the grounds.  Pretty awesome free spot!

What we did

CRATERS OF THE MOON NATIONAL MONUMENT AND PRESERVE

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Did you know that this was originally the spot where NASA trained astronauts on the basics of volcanic geology to prepare them for explorations to the moon back in 1969? When you go there, you will see why this spot was picked.

We entered landscape we have never seen before with volcanic remains from thousands of years ago surrounding us with limited or determined vegetation.  We loved exploring the caves and lava tunnels.  We even ran into another full-time RV family #lbrvadventure there and spent the afternoon exploring this amazing place with them.  It was definitely a highlight of our trip!

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We spent the day there exploring and going to the visitor center.  If you are going for the a day visit it is definitely enough time.  They do however have some nice hiking trails that take you around the volcanic landscape if you wish to go back for another day.  There is a campground at Craters of the Moon but, we found that only verizon worked with one bar of signal there.

Repairs

About 50 minutes away from the campground, we pulled over at a turnout to switch driving.  As I walked around to hop into the drivers side, I found the side window broken above our couch.  Learning from jumping into impulsive repair decisions, we decided to continue to head to our campground, assess the situation and see if we were comfortable enough to spend time there with a broken window.

 

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