Day Five, Part Two: Craters of the Moon

The drive back to Idaho from Whitefish, Montana was a long one (11 hours!!!).  Luckily there was something amazing waiting for us at the end of the drive.  I had seen a sign for Craters of the Moon on the way up from Nevada on the first day of our trip.  But we didn't have time to stop then.  Today my dad promised we would stop...

Visiting Craters of the Moon is like going back in time.

The entire park is a Hawaaian-style lava bed (*minus the flowing lava)

that reminded me of prehistoric times.

I kept expecting to see a dinosaur...

...but only found bones!

Actually, that's just a sculpture...but it's pretty real looking!

The park had an information walk where I learned all about volcanoes & lava.

I got to hike a cinder cone mountain that seemed to go on forever!

Just be careful...one wrong step and...

Oh no!!!!

(Just kidding!)

The view from the top of the cinder cone was amazing!

The back side had completely recovered and had plants growing.

Dad liked the view, too!

Toward the end of our visit we walked out to where the cooling lava had left caves...

To be honest...I was a little nervous about spelunking*.

(*That's a new word my dad taught me today. )

Time to put the new head lamp to good use!

The caves went down into the dark...

Which way should I go...up to the light or down into the dark?

Like my dad says, whether you believe you can or can't, you're right!

Down we went...

Dad was proud of how I handled the cave diving and let me pick where to eat.

I chose a Sun Valley locals favorite, Grumpy's. in honor of my Grandpa Doug.

The food at Grumpy's was great and the staff was friendly!

Our bartender posed for a blog photo and even gave me some stickers after...

See you next time!