I’ve had Craters of the Moon National Monument on my list to visit for a very long time. It’s not really on the way to or near much of anything in central Idaho - a state I had never been to before. So I was excited to finally be there and the parks employee at the gate seemed just as excited that I had made it.

The pictures I took (and the ones I had seen over the years) really don’t do the landscape justice. It really is otherworldly. Crispy, dark lava soils are everywhere with little patches of pure white flowers that somehow grow and thrive in spaced-out harmony. The climb up the steep, all-black Inferno Cone is far more daunting than I had imagined, but worth the effort.

Enjoy the pictures - but go see it for yourself.