June 20, 2017. Driving around the moon?

CAMPGROUND:  Mountain View RV Park.  5 stars out of 5.  Nice shaded sites with trees providing some privacy between sites.  Grills and picnic tables.  Beautiful bathrooms.  On-site restaurant with excellent food and drink. $35/night.

 

LOCATION:  South Central Idaho near Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve.

 

WEATHER:  Hot and sunny.  High 92.  Cool evening.

 

We awoke at City of Rocks State Park with a nice cool temperature.  We hurried over to the national preserve so that we could get in a hike before the sun heated things up.

 

These rock formations are very interesting.    

 

We found a nice Alpine meadow trail.  We hiked about 2 miles, first watching the rock climbers climb these impossibly vertical rocks.  Then, we joined the cows in a beautiful meadow full of migrating Monarch butterflies, birds chirping and mountain flowers at their best.    

 

By 9:00, it was getting hot, so we returned to the Airstream and packed up.  We only had a short distance to travel today, but there were no direct routes.  We had to zigzag first west then east.  It was 190 miles.

Our destination today was another place listed in my guidebook "1000 Places to Go Before You Die".  It is a national monument called Craters of the Moon.  About 2000 years ago, volcanic lava spewed all over this area creating interesting lava fields.  It supposedly looks like the moon.  We took a loop drive through the preserve and did a few short hikes.  

On this steep trail, I hiked right up a volcanic cone.

 

Back to the RV, I took advantage of their strong wifi.  I need to reserve a campground for the 4th of July weekend.  Campgrounds always fill up then.  I also have to find storage for our Airstream when we go to Bangkok in July.  When we are traveling in these remote places, wifi is hard to find, and the phone service is very spotty.

 

 

DINNER:  We ate in the restaurant in the RV office.  We shared some ribs and a huge Idaho baked potato.  It was some of the best ribs I've ever eaten.  It was interesting talking to the local waitress and the owner.