Cindercones, Spattercones, 'n' Volcanoes –Oh My!

We had missed Craters Of The Moon National Monument on last year's Great West Adventure, running out of time to visit. It's here on Earth where, according to one sign, an early geophysical admirer had written the place looked exactly like the Moonscapes he'd seen though telescopes. Well, except for the trees, of course –and the severe lack of meteor impact craters.

Instead, we were presented the conical remains of active volcanic activity and many, many pictures of actual volcanoes on other parts of this planet with the assurance that these would be same except that they aren't now. And then again, the actual Moon hasn't been

volcanic for ages before any human looked through a magnifying lens.

Frankly, the only compliment we have is for the Lava Flow Campground: nicely laid out, frequently spaced water spigots, clean restrooms, and paved sites artfully separated by piles of cinder rock, each with a grill and a (synthetic?) stone picnic table.

Of course, any Ranger resource was absent and the information center closed: Covid.  Despite the stiff 10-15mph breeze all day, the sky was hazy from the annual California wildfires, too.

Last year, near Bend, Oregon, we were able to climb into the some of the quiescent volcanic features, touch and walk among the long-cooled remains at the Lava Lands National Park. Nearby, the Mackenzie-Santiam Scenic Byway drive took us up the cindercones of other volcanoes where we found a Depression era CCC project had built a mountain observatory near the top of Belknap Crater. If you would be the adventurous

type, you could park and hike across the tumbled boulders.

But not at Craters of The Moon!!

This year, in this place, we were very disappointed to find that almost every “information sign” on the first short, meticulously paved, half-mile walk was, as we put it last year for the extremely disappointing National Park at the Olympic Mountains range, filled with “glossy Environmentalist propaganda about why we need to spend our tax money to preserve this wilderness.” Also, “Don't Touch Anything.” So very disappointing that Debbie couldn't suppress a disparagingly disgusted snort after the fourth one of those signs in few hundred yards because there was very little real information about the geology and their formation. We'd seen this type of terrain much more educationally –more “up close and personal”– in Oregon. After that experience, now –this year– to be treated like mindless Wowzers –on our dollar, no less!– is the height disparagement.

Our strong recommendation is this: Craters Of The Moon is not worth your time if you have seen or intend to visit the two sites we mentioned near Bend, Oregon for a respectful education.

Getting there and returning on the fifth of October, we drove through Arco, WY: “The first city in the world to be lighted by atomic power”. We also used the Butte County RV Dump (free!). Debbie says that “Arco water tastes best of any on this trip” –and it didn't make us glow in the dark, either! John used the internet to learn that Idaho National Lab owns much of the high desert of eastern Idaho, between Arco and Idaho Falls and down to Blackfoot. Atomic City, Idaho is just south. It has its own RWC (according to the road sign) which we deduce is some sort of governmentese for Radioactive Waste Containment. We're still newbies to this part of the country and learning things anew here.

After that one night very shy of the actual Moon, we headed back

toward a Homeward Bound track, still wandering aimlessly, but also now our house has developed a surprising overnight crack in the windshield. It was there when we woke up. The insurance people kept demanding to know what incident caused it. Sleeping was not an option for them. The fourth We just don't know apparently was –with a sigh. They are involved because the windshield is a gigantically huge hunk of glass that we don't expect to find easily while traveling and hope we can get home first.

Then, while plugging in our towed Honda, the electrical socket connecting coach-to-toad's brake

lights broke. Unable to find a site in Yellowstone National Park's Madison Campground (one of the few still open at this time of year), we headed back toward Jackson to spend the night on the wonderfully fall-colored shores of the Palisades Reservoir. We were just a bit above the dam, at Blowout which is a USFS campground that had been “closed” for the winter: no water, no restrooms, no trash pickup. However, it was open for self-contained boondock camping at Debbie's preferred price for anything –free. Between that and the brilliantly turned leaves, life was good enough to forget the windshield worry for the moment. Thank you taxpayers.

We decided to stay at the Blowout Campground another night to let us drive our uncoupled

Honda back about an hour to Swan Valley. Three miles west, just across the Snake River bridge, is a dirt road to a scenic view of the river valley and surprising falls gushing from under the road. Back at Swan Valley, we turned off US-26 to the Teton Scenic Byway for a 20-mile trip over local mountains to the town of Victor (where we had ended our Teton Pass exploration the week before Idaho Falls). Descending to that town, we were treated to a “backside” view of the Grand Teton lording above local mountains. In this fall environment, the drive in the lower elevations was wonderfully

yellow with the brilliant aspen trees. Well worth the side trip!

The next day, we made a return visit to the Teton National Park, at Gros Ventre Camp, where we replaced the 6-pin brake light receptacle for the toad and futzed for hours with the wrong tools before finally getting it attached the next morning in time for a “quick” trip (five hours round) north to Yellowstone National Park so Debbie could see the Prismatic Geysers from the upper viewing trail that she had missed last year.

Good thing that's off the bucket list because they closed the campground gates for the winter at 11a the next morning. We'll head to Rock Spring, WY, where there is cheap camping –but a review promised the showers are awesome– at the Sweetwater Events Complex. Debbie says the sites will be full service and looks forward to longer showers inside the coach, too, with a “city water” supply and sewage coupling. When we rely on our limited tanks while boondocking, we practice navy showers: moisten, soap, and quick rinse, using minimal water. So, we suppose, it really is like “camping” after all.

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