Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

There are many signs that volcanic activity played a big role in shaping the landscape of the Western US. We have already visited a few on this trip and posted about them. Craters of the Moon is another example of volcanic activity in this region. Instead of creating conical mountains such as Mount Rainier, here fissures opened up in the earth spitting forth lava and ash.  Here are a few photos from our visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

Sign lets you know you are entering the preserve

Much of the land is covered with lava

Some of the land is covered with cinders and small plants adapt. The area in this photo is referred to as a cinder garden.

Although there are no large mountains here there are cinder cones. In this photo taken from atop the large cinder cone in the next photo you can see several cinder cones.

Large cinder cone we climbed. If you look close you can see tiny people at the summit.

We are climbing the cinder cone and Pam is up ahead.

This photo was taken after we got to the top.

Now we are going back down to the parking lot.