Everything is Lava

On the road again, beautiful Idaho country.

Oh our way to Yellowstone, we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It's a sea of lava, and it is very strange to approach. The land has a warm tone for miles, scrubby vegetation and some trees. But in the distance, you see a swath of black. The borders of the lava flow are pretty well-defined.

Type "craters of the moon" into google maps/earth. Zoom out - you can see the pathway of the flows. Zoom in, and you can see the textures frozen in time. A lot of it still looks liquid!

The Shoshone Indians are believed to have witnessed eruptions. There are two different (though similar) legends about exploding mountains and melting hills. A spur of the Oregon Trail came through here, not a pleasant terrain for covered wagons. Check out this page for more history.

A cinder cone - not quite a volcano, but a vent in the crust that sputters up lava. It's built up over time by the volcanic debris. You can see another two cinder cones behind this one.

These little white plants have extensive root systems, they space themselves out evenly, and look like snow in the distance.

The hotspot that formed Craters of the Moon, is now beneath Yellowstone. It stays in place, but the North American Plate is moving southwest over it.

Onwards to Yellowstone! The grand finale of our serendipitous volcano tour.

OR to ID

After Washington, it was back to our beloved Oregon State Parks. We wanted to check out a WA State Park before leaving the state...but the camping fee was too pricey for us (for a state park. That isn't California). We like to stay as far under $30 a night as we can. So it was back south to Oregon where the state parks are the best we've ever seen. One of the reasons being that, along with local government grants, incredible support from the community and support from local businesses, they are so smart with their resources and infrastructure design. These antique appliances were saved and installed in newly constructed picnic shelters. You see things like this all over the parks in the northwest. Use what you got!

This is just charming decoration on a refurbished electric stove. Form and function :)

Emigrant Springs was a place along the old Oregon Trail where people would stop to fill up on water, and enjoy the shade (or lose their oxen in the thick forest). This was the first forest the travelers saw since leaving Missouri (and the last we would see for awhile since we are headed eastward). Fascinating history along this whole route. It's pretty wild reading diary entries and personal perspectives from those traveling 2,200 miles through the wilderness, towards a new life, in a place they had not yet seen.

We found an original Meeker marker

Biked into Meacham, population...<100? Got some food and friendly conversation from the folks at the general store. We were told “This is the town” it's the diner, post office, bar, town hall, you name it - for this little settlement along the trail. In 1923 it was the “Capitol of the U.S. for a day” when president Harding stopped into town for the commemoration of the 18^th anniversary of the covered wagon migration. Best apple pie we've found west of the Mississippi. I grabbed a town newsletter, the Meacham Gazette, authored by Mountain Millie. It included the September birthdays, local announcements, a pineapple salsa recipe I'd like to try, and recipes for homemade tick and insect repellent among other interesting and handy info.

old oregon trail

new oregon trail

And on down the road. We are officially headed eastward. On our way to Boise, we pulled over for a hardy brunch at this saloon. I can't even remember the name, but it had those old west swingy doors you can see over Ed's shoulder. Which, I assure you, we gracefully and casually entered through. Eat (and drink) like the locals!

Then we finally made it to Boise Idaho where we settled down in our dear friend Whitney's driveway for a few days, and visited with her little family. My gosh, it was nice to see a familiar face after so long. We've made a lot of new friends in our travels, but it was SO great to spend time and swap stories with an old one. We didn't go anywhere! We didn't want to! It was awesome! We just stayed home. Hung out, ate, drank, watched the baby be cute, and caught up. Chill to the max. Only baby pictures were taken. It was so so wonderful and we really enjoyed our time there. Baby Jasper is easy-going and cute. Just like his parents. haha