This was the second in our stops on the day to Tim's house. The Craters of the Moon National Monument in central Idaho, approximately 160 miles east of Boise, was first proclaimed in 1924 by President Coolidge. Currently, it comprises 54,440 acres. The expansion brings into the monument approximately 661,000 additional acres of federal land, primarily south of the current boundary.The monument is a geologic wonder cast in a wild and remote landscape. Its central focus is the Great Rift, a 62-mile long crack in the earth's crust. The Great Rift is the source of a remarkably preserved volcanic landscape with an array of exceptional features. Craters, cinder cones, lava tubes, deep cracks, and vast lava fields form a strangely beautiful volcanic sea on central Idaho's Snake River Plain. Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. We explored this "weird and scenic landscape" along the scenic 7 mile loop drive where yesterday's volcanic events are likely to continue tomorrow...
