Coolest Name in the National Park Service
My quest to visit all the National Park sites was inspired partly by grade school science textbooks. I remember all those iconic pictures of Old Faithful, Mount McKinley, the Smoky Mountains, and, of course, Craters of the Moon. The very name evokes fascination in 11-year-old science geeks everywhere: what sort of environment exists in that part of Idaho that earned it the coolest name in the entire National Park Service: Craters of the Moon? It’s not only mentioned in a geologic context, it’s also a place where NASA trained Apollo astronauts and moon rovers for decades. We’re talking a major attraction for science and history geeks here!
Craters of the Moon is a huge expanse of ancient volcanic lava flows and cinder cones. This type of stuff is pure gold for East Coasters like myself. Here, east of the Mississippi River, is the “old continent”. The weathered Appalachians are some of the oldest mountains in the world, and don’t change too much anymore. No earthquakes, no volcanoes, no change in millions & millions of years, other than the slow erosion of wind and water. Great place for coal mines, lousy place for geologic excitement.
The western part of the country, on the other hand, is terrific. The Pacific plate is still grinding alongside the North American plate, the Rocky Mountains are still pushing skyward, the Great Basin uplift continues, and the Yellowstone hotspot drifts ever so slowly towards the east coast. Craters of the Moon is evidence of this activity. It was the Yellowstone hot spot 8-15 million years ago, and within the park itself are lava flows from volcanic eruptions between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago, well preserved due to the low rainfall in Idaho’s high desert region.
Driving & hiking around craters is groups of coolness. You can walk across miles and miles of lava flows, explore numerous vents and tunnels underground, and scramble around rocky cinder cones, mini-volcanoes spurting up like blackhead acne on a 14-year-old. It’s truly a rugged, alien landscape, reminiscent of countless sci-fi movies where Our Heroes are abandoned on some godforsaken hunk of rock to fend for themselves. There is little doubt why NASA tested Apollo mission gear here: few terrains are as uninviting in the United States as Craters of the Moon National Monument. Throw in the heat and lack of precious water, and you’re talking one of the most dangerous tracts of land in the Lower 48. Well, it would be if it weren’t for the well-paved park roads and the close access to State Highway 20, no more than 30 minutes away from the closest Denny’s and their Heart Attack on a Plate Steak-n-Eggs Scrambler….
In my travels, there are moments of great satisfaction when I finally visit a site from those old grade school textbooks. Craters of the Moon was one such moment. It was, indeed, groups of cool.
[Pics on this post were taken by the blog owner and are copyrighted thusly. Do not reuse without permission. See my other Craters pics here].
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Links:
Craters of the Moon National Monument (check out this cool animation)
America In Context 
Those rugged black mounds are spatter cones. Cinder cones are the smoother black mounds in case you don’t know.
There are volcanoes in eastern North America. Trimble Knob and Mole Hill in Virginia are two. The last known eruption in eastern North America was about 35 million years ago and was of Trimble Knob.
Apollo astronauts didn’t actually train at Craters of the Moon. They studied the geology to see what it was believed they would be dealing with.
The Yellowstone hotspot isn’t drifting to the east. Hotspots are stationary. The North American plate is moving to the west.