From Pine Forests to the Craters of the Moon

It’s surprising how quickly we’ve fallen back into the rhythm of travel. I mean we did have the WHOLE summer off. Lol. Coffee by 7am, on the road by 9am, and off before 3pm. Since we’re traveling without reservations, the earlier we arrive the better our chances of snagging a good campsite. That said, we had our pick of spots at the Union Creek Campground outside of Baker City, OR when we arrived on Tuesday, 9/3. We enjoyed a quiet couple of days hiking and biking (Rog) and playing in the lake (Riley). The lake was low and a bit mucky around the edges but that did not deter our water pup in the least. In fact, he may have considered it an added bonus. Mom, not so much. 

Daddy's boy in the lake and on the trail.

Rog combined the North and Southshore trails to loop the lake on his mountain bike. He hasn’t ridden in a while, so he was happy for a pleasant 17-mile ride with no serious climbs. I thought about doing some biking (does that count at all?) but opted instead to take Riley on the trail and for another dip in the lake.

Rog does see some gorgeous scenery on his rides.

We drove into Baker City and were lucky enough to hit their Wednesday farmer’s market. It’s a cute little town with lots of shops, although nearly everything was closed by 4pm – talk about rolling up the sidewalks! We loved the metal art sculptures all down main street and made the obligatory stop at the local award-winning brewpub. Hey, it’s a tough job. 😊

Peppers at the Farmer's Market. Yum!

We loved the metal sculptures, but we never did figure out what the Africa connection was.

Sunset on the lake.

After a one-night stop at the Mountain Home RV park in (you guessed it) Mountain Home, ID we pulled into Craters of the Moon National Monument on Friday, 9/6. The Lava Flow Campground in the park is all first come/first served so we did well by arriving early. The park was completely full by late afternoon. One downside of the national parks is that very few allow dogs on the trails. So Riley had couch time and frozen bones to console himself while we hiked. 

A walk through the campground gave us lichen covered rocks and wild flowers.
Afterward Riley agreed to share the couch, but he wasn't happy about it!

We settled in and then walked to the visitor’s center to pick up a map and learn about the park. Craters of the Moon was established in 1924 and now encompasses 750,000 acres preserving nearly all of the Great Rift and its associated lava fields. The Great Rift is a 52-mile-long fissure that began erupting 15,000 years ago. Its most recent eruption was only 2000 years ago and geologists believe more activity is likely. (But none this week!)

The visitor’s center had a couple of informative movies and some very cool displays. I had no idea there were so many variations of lava! It was fun identifying the different types and formations during our hikes. Here’s a quick tutorial, but no quiz at the end – I promise!

Pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy) takes its name from the Hawaiian word for “ropy” and was very fluid forming coils or ropes.

Pahoehoe lava formation.

A’a (Ah-ah) is Hawaiian for “hard on the feet” (no, I'm not making this up!) and is a lava flow with rough, jagged edges. It was thicker than pahoehoe and pushed masses of broken rubble. We saw miles of this that would be nearly impossible to cross, even with your fancy hiking boots on.

A'a lava field - miles of sharp broken rubble. Yeah, I'd say "hard on the feet" is an understatement.

Lava bombs were another of our favorites, they come in different shapes and sizes, some weighing up to a 100 pounds! Breadcrust bombs are formed when the outside cools while the inside is still expanding and the crust cracks like a loaf of bread.

A breadcrust bomb and a really cool cross section.  

One of things that most surprised me and that I absolutely loved were the colors! I thought volcanic rock was black, dark grey, or a dull red. But here there are huge swaths with an iridescent blue crust. It is so striking; one area was named the Blue Dragon Flow. The blue is caused by titanian magnetite crystals suspended in the rock surface. We saw other volcanic rock with butterfly wing colors – who knew??

My absolute favorite new fun fact. The colors were amazing!

Oh yeah, I can see how Blue Dragon flow got its name. 

The cinder cones looked like huge, barren hills, but when we climbed Inferno Cone to the overlook - what a surprise, there were trees and a beautiful vista at the top!  I picked up some cinders on our climb and was amazed to see a rainbow effect. Did you know that a thin layer of glass coats the cinders that creates prisms that refract and reflect the light?

Rog trudges up the steep, barren hillside...

.... at the top, what a view!

A huge tree grows out of the cinders.

Can you see the rainbow sparkles???

The spatter cones were a little more desolate. What I didn’t realize is how they vary in color and texture. The details were fascinating. There was even one named Snow Cone that still had snow in the bottom.

A line of spatter cones dots the landscape.

Shadow picture in the crater.

Still some snow in Snow Cone!

The different colors and textures were fascinating.

Lava Cascades was an area where you could really get a sense of how the lava flowed across the landscape. Another cool feature are pressure ridges that formed when the lava underneath forced the hardened crust upward causing it to bend and buckle.

Lava Cascades.

Pressure ridges.

We did several hikes during our stay and one of my favorites was exploring the caves and lava tubes. Lava tubes are formed when the lava hardens on the outside but is still flowing underneath. When the lava flow subsides, the empty tube remains. There are several smaller caves (sections of collapsed tubes) in the park, but my favorite was Indian Tunnel. It was large enough to navigate easily (I am so not belly-crawling over sharp volcanic rock in the dark!) and had some absolutely stunning features. The tube is 30’ high, 50’ wide, and 800’ long and the roof has collapsed in several places letting in enough light to see by.

Indian Tunnel  - into the tube!

The size of the tube was impressive.

Check out the patterns on the ceiling. Very cool!

Deeper inside the tube.

An amazing example of colors and inclusions in this hunk of volcanic rock.

More color and texture - can you tell I was entranced?

Climbing out.

We checked out other caves too, but this one was a no go!

Other fun hikes led to tree molds and lava trees. Both formed when the lava encountered trees. The tree molds clearly show the impression of the lava-charred tree bark, while the lava trees are hollows left when the lava flowed around upright trees.

You can see the impression of bark patterns in the tree molds.

Lava trees.

Whew! Probably more than you ever wanted to know about volcanism. Lol. Ah, one more interesting fact. In addition to the other-worldly landscape, there is another lunar association to Craters of the Moon. In 1969 the Apollo Astronauts trained here in preparation for their moon missions!

Another neat feature. Not sure what this would be... maybe a Pahoehoe pressure ridge?? Lol. 

While moon missions are not on our agenda, we did have a lot of fun during our visit learning about the unique geology of the area.  From here we head to Utah and Dinosaur National Monument. That should be another fascinating blast from the past!