Nap time for Muffie.

Craters of the Moon

We didn't see any green men or the old man in the moon but we did see a lot of cinders and hardened lava.  Craters of the Moon is an unusual place.  The most recent eruption was about 2000 years ago.  I'm not sure how they determine these things.  It is a guess based on how much vegetation has grown back.  

The visitor center had a video which describes how it is believed this volcanic area was formed.  It was quite interesting.  It showed rock formations we see here in Craters compared to rock formations found on live volcanos in Hawaii.  The comparison helped you understand the various structures you see here.

Take me to your leader.

These volcanos emitted vast quantities of cinders along with lava.  Walking around here reminded me of our driveway at home where I grew up.  We had cinders for a driveway topping.  The crunch, crunch, crunch as you walked brought back memories.

I climbed to the top of this cinder cone.  That little spec you see at the top is me.
Quite a hike for an old man.  That wasn't even the top.  I had to go up another section like this.

There are lava tubes you can enter to view the bats that live there.  I opted to pass on that hike.  It was over a mile and I was pooped from the cinder cone deal.  As we walked through various areas you could see where lava tubes had collapsed.  There was a hollow area beneath them where lava once ran.

The Green Man!  I'll be darned.  I missed it.

The video showed lava carrying large pieces of rock down the mountain as the cone collapsed as lava spewed out.  Sometimes these pieces of rock were carried long distances.

Another example of these "floaters"

We met a woman who had just visited Mt. St. Helens.  She said it was a disappointment as you were not allowed close to it.  I guess there is still some activity there.  She said this area is completely different from there though.  I guess Mt. St. Helens spewed ash rather than cinders.  I've seen the ash in Guatemala.  It was light like styrofoam.  People there dug it out of the hillsides to use as bedding.  A bucket of it wouldn't weigh a pound.

Wildflowers on the cinders.  We missed the best bloom of the wildflowers.

We will leave here tomorrow and head for Dillon.  There isn't much else to see around here.  There is a museum of atomic energy up the road but it didn't look to interesting.  I don't know if they mine uranium around here or what but there is a lot of of things making reference to atomic energy.  I tried to ask someone about it but couldn't find a local with much knowledge.

Another piece of rock hahaha.