Day 63 - Thursday, September 18, 1997

KOA Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls, Idaho - It's cold again, folks!! The temp stayed in the 50s and the wind was a consistent 20 mph. But that didn't stop us from driving 80 miles to see Craters of the Moon National Monument. This park is a lava bed comprising about 80 square miles. The whole lava bed is actually much bigger.

Because lava rock is so fragile we weren't able to stray off the paved paths like we can do in other parks. However, we were still able to enjoy it. We climbed a huge cinder cone called Inferno Cone. From this very high viewpoint (the climb was steep) we could see the chain of cinder cones along the Great Rift. The volcanoes here were not the mountains you normally see. The lava flowed from a big crack in the earth. Pretty wild stuff.

We were able to hike across the lava bed to explore some caves. Can you believe Marci actually went into a cave? Well, actually Jim had to hit her over the head and drag her by the hair, but she did wake up once inside. Other than a fear that the entrance (which we could no longer see) might cave in, Marci did great. Of course she was still a little groggy from the blow to the head.

Back on the trail we ran into our camper-neighbors from the day before (who had since left our campground). Before they could see us, Marci yelled, "OVER!! Over is better!!" and we took off running. Last we saw of them they were running across the lava beds shouting "Öndär! Öndär!"