Craters of the Moon - 7-24-06

We met at the visitors center and looked at the displays they had.  We piled in our cars and went on a short drive to our 1st hike.

For our 1st hike we hiked around the Broken Top cinder cone.  We went on a hike that was approximately 2 miles in length.  We saw all kinds of lava flows and lava bombs.  We stayed on the trail for a while, but went off trail so we could see some things that most people who visit the park never get to see.  We were able to see some elk tracks as well.  We hiked around the back of Broken Top and I took a picture of Amy standing behind a small lava bridge.  The lava in this area was very fragile and broke when you walked on it.

For the 2nd hike we went and looked at the tree molds.  The map only shows where a few of the molds are at, and Doug took us to see others that were not on the public map.  Some are pretty deep, up to 4 feet in the lava.  Others are laying on their sides and you can see where the branches used to be.  We then went off trail again and he showed us a piece of rock way up on the side of a piece of lava that is of another kind of rock.  We continued he hike and came to a cave that owls live in.  There used to be a wood ladder down inside to the cave but it has rotted out and they cannot build a new one because of some wilderness law.  We came to another large cave that we could crawl in and took pictures of the stalactites in the very back end of the north side of the cave.  It went back about 100 feet from the entrance and got pretty narrow.  If we turned off our lights it was pitch black.  The other end of the cave had a shelf you could stand on.

For the 3rd hike we continued across the lava fields to Moonshine Cave.  Along the way we stopped at several small caves, and just peered inside since we were short on time.  We came to Moonshine cave which was used in Prohibition days to make whiskey.  My batteries in my camera were dead and I left my others at home so I have no pictures.  Amy has some, but since this is my picture diary, I won't include them here.  It was interesting to see the left over still and stove pipe.  We then hiked across the lava field and over a small hill off trail to get back to the cars.

We thanked Doug for taking us to see the interesting sights that others never get to see.

Amy and I can't wait to go back next year and look at all the other things we didn't have time to see.

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