Epic Roadtrip Journal: 6/17/11 Craters of the Moon National Monument

We managed to get up at 4:30am to head out of Yellowstone and towards our Idaho destination. We drove through the park one last time for about an hour as the Sun rose... and as the snow fell. It was odd. I saw one last black bear run across the road before we left. We entered Montana for about 20 minutes, and then on to Idaho, where we saw a CROP DUSTER fly right over us and then dump it's... stuff... onto a farm (seriously, what is that stuff? Pesticides? Fertilizer? I'm not going to exert the energy required to look it up). It was so awesome.

After driving a while through apparently beautiful Idaho (huge mountains as a backdrop to vast empty green farm fields - so epic), we went to Arco, ID. We actually missed our destination, the first nuclear reactor, so we had to drive all the way back to it. I enjoyed it thoroughly: it was a lot of really cool nuclear power info. They actually had the lead engineer's notebook (shit, I can't believe I forgot his name), open to when they first created power; something like "electricity was created with nuclear energy." SO FUCKING STOIC. The EBR-1: Experimental Breeding Reactor. I can't believe how nerdy I am right now.

I'm winning science!

Then we drove back to Arco to have lunch at "Pickle's Place" - I figured it was right up Scott's ally. They had decent burgers and fried pickles. They also had the schedule of the local town's (Butte, ID) baseball team: the Butte Pirates. AHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHA

We got to Craters of the Moon, a small national park "area" completely devoid of trees since it is the site of a huge lava flow. The landscape is really bizarre; kind of like Mars or something. Or the moon... whatever. The rocks are redder. I say they change the name to Craters of Mars. ...I think I'm nerding out again...

We set up the tent and basically did the entire park in about 5 hours. I'd say half a day is more than enough time to spend here. There were some goofy little hikes around some lava flows. The Hawaiian names for the two different kind of lava are hilarious and awesome, a lot like Bryce's "Hoodoos." Pahoihoi (sp?) and Aa (pronounced Ah-Ah). Basically, I just scream these words whenever I see a lava flow rock.

We checked out a few caves - they were interesting; some required headlamps. One in particular was awesome. It was super icy (so obviously I slipped and tore my leg up a bit) and then Scott and I found a little crevice where we went spelunking: basically crawling through a tiny cave hole until our bodies can't fit any more. I managed to scrape up my arm and legs and cracked the LCD of my shitty small camera, but whatever, it was awesome. I don't even like that camera anyway. At the point where my shoulders couldn't fit through spaces anymore, I backed out again. AND made it out alive. Score. Plus, added a few more battle wounds.

I'm smiling, so this must be pre-gashing-my-limbs-on-sharp-rocks

The Scott, Alex and I went for a 3-mile hike up and down a couple of the big craters. Volcanoes are crazy. It was a fun, dry, dusty hike. We've hiked through a lot of different types of terrain: we were in snow yesterday, and rocky, dusty, lava rocks today. We ran most of the downhills, which is funny, because Nadkarni could see the entire downhill run from our camp. Our site is literally viewable from almost all locations of the park. It is awkward, but funny. I tried to pee earlier, but realized people hiking across the lava flow pit could see. Whoopsidaisy.

LOOK HOW STRONG WE ARE

We just finished dinner AND watched sunset from our campground. It was really cathartic, and good to have another easy-ish evening. Finished off our ground beef with burgers, had some hot dogs, veggies, and baked beans on my camp stove. Only some minor grease burns; I'm calling it a success. The sunset colors are amazing - right over the nearby mountain range, which still has some snow on the top. It was really nice seeing another good sunset. Now if only we could get a cloudless night to see some fucking stars. (holy crap, I just realized that there wasn't a SINGLE NIGHT on the entire trip where we could stargaze. That blows).

We played/learned how to play Euchre. It was a lot like Spades; except that Nadkarni and I won. Thus ends Scott's reign of terror with card games.