Craters of the Moon NP

Jocelyn Timmermans
Jul 16, 2023
4 min read

June 24 - July 8, 2023: Set 1 of 3: June 24 - 28

At last our long-planned-for trip became a reality. We travelled from Leavenworth, to Craters of the Moon NP, to the Grand Tetons and finally Yellowstone National Park. We did ten hikes in twelve days with six women. From lofty summits, to river carved canyons and erupting geysers to colorful springs, it was all ours to behold in this diverse land of contrasts.

June 24th we drove to Leavenworth and stayed two nights at the Nelson Creek campsite.

4-pic slider -- After a 4-hour drive, we were eager to stretch our legs so we did a 1-hour walk from our campsite to town, along the river and through the Bavarain-styled village, before settling down for dinner there.

June 25 - Colchuck Lake via Stuart Lake trail

Stats: 15.75 km / 904m gain / 5:30 hours MT / 1700m high

This hike is on the first section of the 29km Enchantments trail. In order to do the whole mullti-day hike, you'd need to enter a lottery.

To our left was our destination for the day.

No, we were not guilty of feeding this squirrel. 2) Tall Fringed Bluebells

The Enchantment Mountain Range.

Arrived at Colchuck Lake.

We veered off to the left to find this spot right by the water. They're all looking at the mountain goat by the protruding point of earth.

I bushwhacked towards the goat. When I turned a corner, he was right there! Instead of running away from me, he came right towards me! Hmm. Could I trust him not to butt me off of the cliff?

At this point he was barely 10 feet away from me. So I slowly backed away from him.

As if to pronouce his superiority, he lept onto this rock above me and gave me this obstinate look.

1) Japanese Stone Pine 2) Milkweed

Heading back down, guess who we ran into again? He certainly wasn't very shy of humans.

It had now been about four months since Denise broke her ankle in a snowshoeing incident. It was her first serious hike since then. Thankfully, this was the only day she felt some pain in it. Heather is reinforcing it with tape.

Just as we got to this creek not far from the trailhead, it started to rain.

This was the first time I ever used the awning on the van. It came in very handy when it rained. Tammy & Heather slept in their tents, me & Charlotte in my van and Denise & Janice in Janice's truck.

June 26 - We drove 4:30 hours to Starbucks where we spent a night at Lyons Ferry KOA campsite. It was a tiny oasis in a vast barren land.

Fields of wheat sway in the wind.

Palouse Falls.

Hmm. Those pinnacles look interesting. Would we be able to get to them? Denise had done so years ago.

The Palouse River drops 200' into the canyon. This landscape was formed by two very different types of floods: lava flows & ice-age floods. It's the only major waterfall formed by ice-age floods in eastern Washington that has flowing water year-round.

1) Giant Star flower 2) Gumweed

After following along the edge on top of the canyon wall, we dropped down into it.

Sage brush

I was wondering what was taking the others so long.

Charlotte couldn't resist taking a nice cool dip. That led to the others doing so as well. I didn't want to in wet under-garments wet. But then Tammy pulled out her homemade waterproof bag made from a discarded tent, to put all the wet unmentionables in.

And then we carried on, down the edge of the canyon to the pinnacles.

Voila! What a sight!

At the top of the falls. I was very carefully perched on the edge above the falls, holding out my arm to get the last shot.

Back above the canyon wall.

At the Lyons Ferry campsite we promptly set to work making dinner.

June 27

We started the day with a little stroll to this viewpoint by the campsite.

These Morning Glory were growing in the lawn.

Wheat fields in Idaho.

We spent the night in the Boise KOA campsite. Us three chose to have our dinners together. We each took turns being in charge of preparing the meal.

June 28 - Craters of the Moon National Park

Geologist H. Steams described this area in 1923 as "the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope". The vast volumes of lava were not ejected from a volcano, but from deep fissures known as the Great Rift.

After driving all morning, we did 5 little hikes in 4 hours in the park.

#1 - Devils Garden: .8 km / paved

Dwarf Monkey Flowers.

In the distant past, rivers of lava floated hugh chunks of canyon wall to this spot. It has since crumbled and rabbitbrush + limber pine have grown in the sparce soil. A visiting minster once said, "Its a garden fit for the devil himself!"

Dwarf Buckwheat

#2 - Inferno Cone: .6 km

1) Bitterroot 2) Silverleaf Phacelia

Big Cinder Butte is one of the world's largest cinder cones.

This national park covers 750,000 acres! The Great Rift (52 miles long) can been seen from this summit. The cinder cones were created when the lava flow got clogged in the fissures.

#3 - Tree Molds trail: 3.2 km / 33m gain

The crumbly popcorn-like lava caused by the more forcefull ejection of thicker lava, is called a'a.

Whereas the smoother rope-like lava is caused by slower moving rivers of lava called pahoehoe.

1) Larkspure 2) Penstemon

1) Hawk's-beard 2) Penstemon

This trail ends here at a pit formed by a lava-charred tree.

#4 - Broken Top Loop: 2.9 km / 74m gain

This trail winds round a cinder cone.

True to it's name, this trail features fissures, lava tubes and cinder cones.

This trail leads through the youngest cinder cone on the Snake River Plain.

1) Paintbrush 2) Buckwheat

In summer temeratures can reach up to 65C! Winter brings cold & snow. It's a miracle that anything manages to grow on this black cinder ground.

#5 - Caves trail: 2.4 km We had to pick up a free permit at the visitor centre for this trail.

This final trail was our favorite. The Indian Tunnel caves led us through three chambers of a lava tube in which two sections of the ceiling had collapsed.