Craters of the Moon

The scenery for our Idaho hike was very different from our typical hikes.  Along the 52-mile-long Great Rift, in the Snake River Plain, lies an otherworldly landscape of ancient lava flows, lava tube caves, and cinder cones, and spatter cones from volcanic eruptions over the last 16 million years.  The most recent lava flow here was about 2,000 years ago.  We learned two words that will come in handy next March when we travel to Hawaii:  a’a’ and pahoehoe, describing the two basic forms of lava.  We saw lots of both pahoehoe lava (the smooth type) and a’a’ lava (the rough type) as we hiked in Craters of the Moon National Monument.  There is very little plant life growing on the lava even after 2,000 years.  The a’a’ lava (a’a’ means “hurts the feet” in Hawaiian) is extremely rough and very hard.  One can imagine the difficulties faced by the emigrants traveling west along the Oregon Trail in this region!

The next day we biked in more friendly terrain in the foothills of the Sawtooth mountains.  In the photo of our lunch spot, note the sandstone picnic table and bike rack.  The gravel bike trail followed a river valley north of Ketchum.