Craters of the Moon

 We saw some really incredible geological things on this trip.  The first National Park we went to was Craters of the Moon in Idaho.  The kids absolutely loved it.  In fact, Little Man said this is his favorite National Park, because the overall landscape was so interesting (he loved the black and the crazy trees).

We made a couple stops along the driving loop.  The first one was the Devil's Orchard Trail.  It was named that sort of tongue in cheek as saying if Hell looked like anything, surely it would look like this trail.

Of course, my kiddos love reading every sign and learning all about each feature within the park.  We're nerdy like that. 

The white patches are actually flowers growing in the ash.  It's such an interesting landscape.

The Inferno Cone was definitely the highlight.  It's a steep uphill climb up a black ash mountain.  It slopes 4 times, so you think you're at the top and it tricks you when you see the next slope.  It is completely worth the work climbing it though, because the views are spectacular. 

My kiddos ran the whole way down.  It was fun to watch them against the sparkly ash rock. 

We also stopped at the Spatter Cones.  

I also really loved the Lava Cascades.  You can almost picture all of the lava as it hardened into place.  

On our way out, we stopped to eat at Pickle's Place in Arco, Idaho, so I feel like we got the quintessential small-town Idaho experience.   PS- their fried pickle spears really are delicious (according to my husband since I don't eat pickles).