Day 74. July 19, 2019. Craters of the Moon in Idaho

Hey There! It's day 74...It's also July 19th 2019....and we are at The Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho.

Having learned that I am a sucker for a Scenic Biway....Taking the exit that read "Peaks to Craters Scenic Biway" was a no brainer. And...when they added "Craters of the Moon"....well...it could only make it better? Right?

So this Scenic Biway begins in Challis Idaho on its north end....to just outside Picabo 140 miles to the south. The drive is an incredible place to see many of the landscapes left to Idaho through it's geological evolution. If you drive the whole thing...You will see:

Mount Borah....located in the middle of The Lost River Range....it rises to nearly 13000 feet, and is considered one of the most prominent peaks in the contiguous United States....but it doesn't end with Mount Borah....the area is home to 5 other peaks as well that are all over 12000 feet in height. The state of Idaho boasts 9 peaks that exceed 12 thousand feet.... And...In case your curious...like I was...there are only two other states in the country where you can see more 12 thousand foot mountain peaks than Idaho. Oregon...with an impressive 50....And Alaksa....with a mind boggling 300 of them!

The The Lost River Range is the result of millions of years of volcanic activity in the area. Over time, an Area called the Big Lost River Valley fell....as the Lost River Range rose during these geological events. The range is some 75 miles in length making it nearly twice as long as the Sawtooth Range we had just left.

The area is also home to a world class fish hatchery called The Silver Creek Reserve, which was established in 1976 by the Nature Conservency as a part of The Sun Valley Ranch and was established with over 400 acres....over the past 4 decades the area has nearly doubled in size with the goal of protecting not only the habitat in the high desert creeks of the area...but all of the areas wildlife. The Nature Conservency in the area has developed, installed, and operated an incredible array of boardwalks and pathways providing access for outdoor enthusiasts. If your in search of angling...hiking and exploration...even birding....this area is likely on your bucket list.

And then....there is this other worldly place Idaho calls....Craters of the Moon. Once I had done a bit of reading...and in particular after having seen it...I quickly understood why it is often referred to as "The Best National Park Service Park...that no one knows about"

As we neared the cut off for whats called "The 7 mile drive"....I was thinking back through the rules I had set in my head when we left home. No big cities....and nothing touristy feeling. I had read that the annual visitor count for the monument was over 271.000....sounded pretty touristy to me....but.....I had read enough to know....I had to see this place!

First off....take it from a guy that learned the hard way..... man it was HOT! Summer time temps in Idaho's high desert can pretty routinely reach into the 80's and 90's....and it's also no stranger to the occassional triple digit day...which is exactly where it was headed the day we arrived....meaning trekking around on black lava rock means your walking around on surface temps nearing 200 degrees. Translation....for the boys and I...our visit would be a lot less about exploration, hiking, and up close looks at everything this place has to offer....and more about driving the 7 mile loop with the A/C on high....stopping for the occassional photo op. From one parking area I would trek some three or 400 feet up the side of a lava cone...fyi...this is truly a one step forward and two steps back ..... sliding my way up that mountain side. All to snap a few panaramic photo's....including a couple shots of the RV that from where I was...looked like a Tonka toy at the bottom of that hill.....oh...and it was super windy up there....which quickly explained the odd tilt to the trees and shrubs in the area. Then a quick slide back down the path so I could drag my sweaty self back into the air conditioned RV with the boys.

And once again...the beauty of YouTube.....if I couldn't go climbing around in caves and exploring lava beds in person this trip....I know where I could see it. If you use Spotify for your podcasts...you might already be watching the video version of this podcast...if not...it's also on Youtube....all the links below. Point being...I found some amazing video footage of the park and included it in my video...so a big thanks to the National Park Service for sharing! And another amazing resource if your into this sort of adventure...I also found a YouTube channel called "Rock the Park". A couple of buddies Jack and colton and have made it thier mission to explore each and every one of America's national parks Their adventures are super informative....and even more entertaining...definitely go check them out!

So before I dig into what I learned about Craters of the moon...lets have a look/listen to what Jack and Colton had to say about their adventure at Craters of the moon. (insert Video)

...Watching Jack and Colton squeeze through the crevaces and crawl, walk, and slide around inside these caves definitely made me want to put a future visit on my list...just probably a little earlier in the year next time.

So...what is this place...and what happened here?

First...as soon as I saw it...the name became obviouse. The first documented discovery occurred in the late 1800's when a couple of cattle ranchers stumbled onto the area and began exploring trying to determine whether or not it was a suitable for cattle grazing. It probably goes without saying that given the massive lava formations and open rift cracks...some of which we now know can reach depths of nearly 800 feet...the two ranchers figured out that grazing cattle was likely not a wise move in this area. But word was out....and folks across the area were talking about this odd looking place in Idaho. Tall tales were told of the area for nearly a century....sounding so unbelievable that the geological, and scientific communities of the time would dismiss most of the claims....so much so that serious exploration and research in the area would not begin until the early 20th century. As serious researchers began to arrive in the area to explore....analagies were quickly made around how the area reminded them of viewing the moons surface through a telescope...and there ya have it "Craters of the Moon"!

The fact is....that this area looks so much like the surface of the moon...that for more than 50 years, Craters of the Moon has served as a NASA space exploration research site and an astronaut training site.

Beginning in August, 1969, Apollo 14 astronauts landed at the airport in Arco. They then proceeded to Craters of the Moon where they explored the lava landscape and learned the basics of volcanic geology in preparation for future trips to the moon.

The astronauts came to Craters of the Moon because they were pilots and not geologists. NASA felt that these were men who might someday be walking on the moon. They would also have the rare opportunity to collect samples of different rocks on the moon. Since only a limited amount of material could be brought back, it was important that they know enough geology to pick up the most scientifically valuable specimens.

See there....it's not just outdoor enthusiasts...explorors and geologists that come here to learn...even astronauts come here to explore!

in my reading...one of the facts around it's formation that struck me the most....was just how recent this all happened....relatively speaking of course. Geological activity, in the area, we know dates back millions of years....however....what we look at today in the preserve has formed in the last 15,000 years...with the most recent activity being just 2000 years ago. I was putting that in perspective in my brain....2000 years after the first known road on the planet had been built by man...in Egypt....and the Great Pyramids were taking shape...even perhaps completed....this place in what would become south central Idaho had yet to become what I was looking at today.

The area in general was formed during eight major eruptive periods. Molten basalt erupted from fissures in the earths crust...creating a landscape of black and raw lava flows that literally rose and fell creating subtle waves throughout the area as if it were a calm ocean moving with the tides....only this ocean....was one of molten lava.

The lava erupted from what has been named The Great Rift....a series of deep cracks that start near where the visitor center is today....and stretched some 52 miles to the southeast.

During this time...The Craters of the Moon lava field would grow to cover over 618 square miles...and rise to an elevation of just over 5400 feet above sea level.....and all of this...culminating just 2000 years ago.

Standing here looking at all this....I couldn't help but think back through another little fun fact I had read.....it is documented that each of the last 8 volcanic events in the area happened in 2000 year intervals....and it has been over 2000 years since the last documented volcanic event.

Science also tells us that the volume of past eruptive events suggests that slightly over one cubic mile of lava will be erupted during the next event...a cubic mile? How much is that? Asking around on the internet I quickly learned that converted to gallons....it's well over a trillion. For perspective...It takes 4 days for a trillion gallons of water to move through Niagra Falls. If you started filling Olympic Sized Swimming pools....you would fill just over 1.5 million of them before you used a Trillion gallons of water...or...one last thought....Considering average household water usage in the US today....A Trillion gallons of water would supply 11.5 million households...for a year. Thats a lot of lava

and while indications are that during the next event...activity may be far less volitile...but none the less....just as we had learned in the rock slide area's of the sawtooth mountians...nature's not done with things around here....just yet.

As I read on and on about what will happen....I kept coming back around in my mind to....when? Thats when I stopped reading I spose.....I've read enough to know that I....well humans in general....are nuthin but a spec...heck...not even a spec...like a 100th of spec maybe in the grand scheme of time, nature, geololical events .....

Oh...and another random thought....sliding down that lava cone ... back down to the air conditioned RV to rejoin the boys....my brain hooked a left on me again....and I started thinking through how...here I was....in the middle of the results of a major a geological event...walking over who knows how many layers of fossilized life....to crawl back into a machine we call an RV...all cool and comfortable thanks to the AC...both of which are powered by fossil fuel. Some more reading would tell me that the use of fossil fuels dates back thousands of years. In the beginning...petroleum based materials found on the surface of the earth would be used for things like weatherproofing, sealing, early roads...even as adhesives in various types of mosaic and tile applications. It would not be until late in the 1800's when the first practical use gasoline engine would be invented in Germany...at around the time when the first commercial oil well was being drilled in Pennsylvania over here in the United States...igniting the Industrial Revolution. Pretty mind bending to think through how the earths geolocial forces and shifts would work for millions of years creating these things we call fossil layers .... and it would take man just 143 or so years to figure out how to use the material within these layers, pump unknown billions and billions of barrels of it out of the earth...and use it to propel civilization forward in quantum leaps....and in the process....unknowingly, at least in the beginning phases, impacting the planets continuing geological evolution....in ways we may not fully understand...even today. It is clear that man has become pretty good at harnessing and utilizing the earths resources....it is also pretty clear that we should probably become just as good at protecting them.

It would be May 2, 1924 when the area would be established as a National Monument. It would maintain that status for 76 years until 2000, when President Clinton significantly expanded the Monument. Just two years later the National park service areas of the monument would be designated a National Preserve. The combined designation of Monument and Preserve ensures a careful balance of public acess, exploration, recreation and hunting activity...with the importance of preserving the geological and historical integrity of the over 1100 square acreas belonging to Craters of the Moon.

As I was reviewing photo's and videos for this episode...I came across a photo of the historical Marker for Idaho's Magic Reservior. We had driven past the Magic Reservior on our way to Craters of the Moon. The reservior, created in 1910, was unlike other damns and reserviors being constructed across the country at the time....Here...the concern was not flood control...or even power generation....instead engineers determined that a strategically placed lake could capture the deep snow run off each spring from the surrounding peaks...creating the capture of some 190,000 acre feet of water...contained in a 5 mile long by 1.5 mile wide reservior. This water could then be used for irrigtion throughout the high desert area.....essentially....converting the area from the desert it was....to a boutiful agricultural area that supports tons of wildlife along the way. Not to mention the recreational activity enjoyed by thousands throughout the regtion.

Reading that sign...along with reading about the folks that figured out how to power a vehicle using gas....not to mention those Egyptian folks that figured out how to move 4000 lb blocks of limestone across the desert...it became clear to me that through all the complexities of the human brain....whether it was 4000 years ago....or yesterday.... humans seem to fall into one of two fundamental categories....in one category....folks that think through things....whether it's how to capture snow run off an gain from it rather than allowing it to simply run through, and leave an area in the form of a river....to the folks that figured out that if they could just figure out the combustible engine....it would transform the world...even some 6000 or so years earlier when the first time a human watched a roundish rock roll down a hillside and then out across a flat surface and thought...hmmm....that gives me an idea....thats probably not exactly how it happened...but we all know that the invention of the wheel stands even today and one of the singular inventions in mans history that got the ball rolling .... pun intended....towards civilisation as we know it today.

And then there is the other category of human....my category....I get to benefit from all these thinkers efforts.

And it leaves me wondering....what makes one person different than the other.....I think...in this case....it's curiosity...and the ability to see things differently than others.

One thing I do know....for me....is that I have learned so much in just a few stops....that I'm becoming more curious with each stop. Sometimes reading about the next stop even before I get there....

And speaking of the next stop....all I know at this point is that we are headed into Wyoming....I don't know exactly where our next stop will be

But wherever it is....

I wonder what we'll learn there?