This may be the strangest place I have ever seen, it looks like the surface of the moon when you look at it through a telescope. Here we are in the middle of Idaho and there is a volcano! Who knew???
The first eruptions in the area were about 15,000 years ago, with the last eruption about 2,000 years ago. Scientists expect it to erupt again one day. The siesmic activity is monitored closely with a close eye kept on the activity in the Yellowstone area too.
The lava fields begin and end abruptly, shockingly actually when you round a corner and are faced with it on your drive in. There are acres and acres of black lava rock; there are huge mounds of cinder like lava; there are caves formed by the lava flow; there are mounds of lava that look like ribbon candy or soft folds of cloth.
Our first hike took us almost straight up for half a mile. It had me gasping for breath a couple of times before I crested the top! There seemed to be a dust which rose from it that had Diane struggling for air, almost as if she were having an asthma attack. An when you got to the top you were faced with a bleak, black landscape that left you at a loss for words to describe it.
There was a strange little campground there, each site nestled into it's own little lava rock wall.
I found it interesting that the area attracts a good number of foreigners. I've seen a number of Canadians and met a Swiss couple who thought it was better even than Alaska, a sentiment that I cannot agree with! A young German couple from Hamburg were hiking to the cave at the same time Luanne and I went.
The area doesn't support much animal life, I was told by a ranger even the snakes stay away from it because it is too craggy and rough.
What must the pioneers traveling the Oregon trail have thought when they were confronted with this unimaginable wasteland??
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