Continuing West - Craters of the Moon National Monument

Wild flowers in Craters of the Moon Nat. Monument

Friday, June 16  - Thursday morning we took a 10 mile bike ride (5 miles down; 5 miles up) before leaving our BLM camping spot.  It’s preferable to ride uphill first and coast “home” but when you are camped at the top of a ridge that’s pretty much impossible.  Our drive took us in and out of Utah and Wyoming near Flaming Gorge National Recreation area with our final camping spot on Bear Lake on the Utah/Idaho border.  Bear Lake is a very large oval shaped lake (20 miles long and 7 miles across) with state parks scattered up the east side, so lots of camp sites available, water activities and mosquitoes. And the lake was very full with not much beach and some areas flooded.

It was back on the road with a stop in Pocotello, ID for a few supplies including a 12 ton jack just in case we have to jack up the RV again because of a stuck leveler.  My poor little jack from the Jeep could barely compress the spring on the front wheel, so it would be useless if we had to jack up a rear wheel.

Wild flowers on the volcanic cinders

After two fairly long driving days, we camped in Arco, Idaho just outside of Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Our home for the night is Mt. View RV park.  Although Craters of the Moon has one campground it is on a first come basis and since it was already late Friday afternoon we decided not to chance it.  As we were checking in at the RV park, the campground hosts from Crater of the Moons were at Mt. View office, asking how many spots were left at his park because they were already full.  Very glad we did not count on getting a spot.  Tomorrow we plan to explore the monument and get in some hiking, biking or both from the paved loop road.  

One of several of the volcano craters

Saturday June 17 - We spent the morning exploring Craters of the Moon National Monument, established in 1924.  This giant lava bed is similar to El Malpias near Grants, NM or the lava flows in Hawaii. Craters is the "most recent fissure eruption" in the continental US.  

Once we reached the visitor's center, we unloaded the tandem for the 7 mile loop through the monument.  With the out and back spurs our ride was only 10.7 miles total but we stopped at several trail heads and overlooks for short hikes.  We hiked to the top of Inferno Cone, which reminded us of Dune 45 in Botswana from our trip to Africa last year, only black cinders instead of orange sand.  Mid-June is the peak of the annual wildflower blooms and it was quite startling to see a "pink carpet" of Monkeyflowers across many of the cinder beds.  All in all a remarkable place.

People walking up Inferno Cone

A short drive took us up into the mountains of Sawtooth National Forest, just outside of Sun Valley, ID.  We are camped just inside the boundaries of the national forest within 100 yards of multi-million dollar houses.  We are in a meadow overlooking a flowing stream and a very expensive neighborhood.  Based on a quick Zillow search, our RV is located on land worth approximately $600,000/acre!... and we are camping here for free!  And it is gorgeous!  And we can't see another campsite from here.  We have it all to ourselves.

Our camp site on national forest land just outside Sun Valley, ID.  The multi-million dollar houses are just beyond the RV