Thursday, September 10, 2009

Craters Of the Moon, Arco Idaho

These photos were taken during our trip to Idaho. Idaho is not really my favorite State. As I have noticed, only few people live in this State. There is no place that impresses me in Idaho. All I saw were cows, farms, desert, farms, farms, cows, cows.....lol! After all Idaho is one of the producers of big potatoes in the country. Enough of my repetitive rants, the main purpose why we went to Idaho is to see the the famous Craters of the Moon.




Craters of the Moon is a national monument and national preserve located in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho, U.S.A. It is along US 20 (concurrent with US 93 & US 26), between the small cities of Arco and Carey, at an average elevation of 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level. The protected area's features are volcanic and represent one of the best preserved flood basalt areas in the continental United States.

The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles (1,036 km2) of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles (2,893 km2). All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet (240 m). There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.