(Posted Aug 31, 11:48 AM by Zac)
Craters of the Moon had a severe time constraint. I wanted to see as much as possible, but had to be in Boise by early afternoon. Solution? Walk into the visitor’s center.
“If you had three hours to explore the park, what would you see?”
I ended up going on a few short hikes, one of which afforded me the opportunity to walk through and explore an 800 foot long lava cave. Very cool. The ceiling of the cave had collapsed in several places so there was enough ambient light to explore without a headlamp. Of course that also left me wondering when the rest of the ceiling would collapse. Being buried under tons of hardened lava would have really screwed up my plans to be in Boise.
Brief exploration complete, I headed out to Boise, stopping in Twin Falls to check out the big bridge. Even though people BASE jump off it, the bridge was not quite as cool as I’d been hoping. A few hours later I was in Boise, where I met up with Liz.
Last summer myself, Tim, Liz, and Jess were inseparable. We hung out almost every day (night?) and had a blast. The kids of summer, the few, the proud, the enthusiastic. Summer nights spent chillin’ on the porch, beer in one hand, pet pigeon nearby. Fast forward a bit. Jess transfers to CU. Liz undergoes some very bogus unpleasantness with the school and moves back to Boise. I’m glad I was able to see both of them again on this trip.
En route to Bend I encountered some crazy weather. The sky was filled with all sorts of colors that I’d never be able to properly see or communicate. But it was amazing. Lightning flashed all around me. About a mile off to the left there was a 150 foot tall wall of flames… another forest fire, likely caused by the storm. The sky looked like fire.
As I’d originally intended, I ended up sleeping at Skull Hollow just outside Smith Rocks. Skull Hollow is a top-secret campground, generally only used by climbers. It’s hard to find (I turned down the wrong road twice) but worth the effort. Skull Hollow is also the only National Forest campground I know of that’s free. The price is right, as they say.
Pictures:
Entrance to 800 foot lava cave
Bad self portrait in cave
B e a u t i f u l
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August 27 - Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Craters of the Moon August 29 - Smith Rocks to Portland