OCTOBER 2016 & AUGUST 2019
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| HOLE IN THE CEILING OF INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| BEAUTY CAVE |
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| ALONG THE CAVE TRAIL |
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| EXITING INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| ELI IN INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| INFERNO CONE |
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| EXITING DEW DROP CAVE |
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| INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| DEW DROP CAVE |
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| NEAR INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| LOOKING IN TO INDIAN TUNNEL |
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| INDIAN TUNNEL FROM ABOVE |
We decided to check out Craters of the Moon while driving back to Boise after a trip to Yellowstone in October of 2016, and were pleasantly surprised. All the pictures I had seen of Craters of the Moon previously were just long, flat expanses of black rock that didn't look worth the time to visit. However, after visiting, we found there was more to it than that. From the Visitors Center, there is a short paved loop road that will take you to some short hikes to some interesting geologic features. We first stopped at Inferno Cone, which is a tall hill of black volcanic rock the kids loved running up and down. Next we visited Snow Cone and Spatter Cone, some dormant miniature volcanoes you could walk up to and look down into. Lastly, we visited the Caves Trail, which was our favorite part of the monument. You will need to ask for a permit at the Visitors Center before doing this hike, but no fee or reservation is required.
The Caves Trail will take you past four caves in approximately one-and-a-half miles of hiking. I would suggest bringing a flashlight or headlamp. All we had were our cellphone flashlights, which made it hard to see in some of the caves. The first cave you will come to is Dewdrop Cave, which is good cave to start with as it has a wide opening and does not go in too far. From Dewdrop Cave we next visited Boy Scout Cave, which requires a bit of squeezing to get into initially, before opening up into a large cavern. From the main cavern, it appeared to keep going after another squeeze, but as we only had our weak cellphone flashlights, we weren't able to see very well and decided to head back. After Boy Scout Cave, we visited Beauty Cave, which had a wide opening you could walk into easily. It was a very large, wide chamber that went back pretty far. We weren't able to see very well in the cave with our lights, but luckily another group of hikers came in just behind us with a strong flashlight to help us reach the end.
After visiting Beauty Cave, we went back down the trail to Dewdrop Cave and took a left to Indian Tunnel. This was by far the coolest cave of them all, and my favorite part of Craters of the Moon. Indian Tunnel is a very large, long lava tube with several holes collapsed in the roof to provide light. It was really cool walking along so far beneath the surface. The main chamber was fairly well-lit by the sun coming through the holes in the ceiling, but there were also a couple dark side caverns to explore, which became pitch black towards the end. Eventually the lava tube closed up where there was a hole to climb back up to the surface at. The pictures don't do it justice, as it was hard to get a good shot of it with the contrasting darkness of the cave and brightness of the sun shining into it.
We visited Craters of the Moon again in August of 2019, on our way back to Boise from the Grand Tetons. Being the middle of the day on a summer weekend, the Visitor Center and Trailhead parking lots were much busier than they were the first time we came. It was also much hotter. We decided to hike the Cave Trail to Indian Cave first, since that was our favorite part of our last visit. After one hike, we were too hot and exhausted to do anything else. Since there are larger crowds and more intense heat in the summer, the best time to visit Craters of the Moon would be in the spring, fall, or winter if there isn't much snow.
