Day 72 - Meridian, ID to Arco, ID - September 9, 2011

The day started early.  Jerry and Gail pulled out at 8 AM and headed over to the tire store for a little work.  Lon and Pam pulled out at 9 and filled up their propane tank.

                                After we all were all done and fueled we hit the road about 10:30.

                         The population was sparse but the scenery every changing and beautiful.  

        There was a lot of smoke and haze in the air from 2 forest fires they were struggling to contain.

We were on Goodale's Cutoff which was an old short cut to the Oregon Trail and part of the Peaks to Craters scenic drive.  

           As the name implies there were a lot of elevation changes.  We stopped for some vista views.

             Lon told Pam to "sit" for a photo op, Heidi heard "sit" and thought he was talking to her. Or was it the other way around?

                                                Gail has been picking up bad habits from JC.

                                                     Did we tell you about the butterflies?  

Our destination today was Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles of sagebrush steppegrasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles. 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. 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 ofcave), and many other volcanic features.

                         Some people hiked up to the summit.  Can you tell which ones are us?

                                         These are lava "splats' which created a cone like shape.

                                   Some still had snow in them.  Can you name the silhouettes?

It was all pretty impressive.  We loaded up and headed to the Mountain View RV park in Arco, ID to stay for the night.  After a good dinner we needed a little exercise so we decided to get in a round of golf.

Gail could have scored better but Heidi kept "retrieving" her ball for her.  What do you expect - she's a Golden Retriever!!

After Jerry got two, holes in one - he wanted to play another round.  But there were no carts available.

                             Then Heidi took us for our walk and found goats bordering the park.  

Pam just happened to have some vegetables that she had hidden from US Customs when they crossed the border.  The goats destroyed the evidence.

                           Heidi did not care for Aunt Pam devoting her attention to other animals.

So we all went back to the coaches and reassured Heidi that she was still the best.  Tomorrow and for the  weekend, the crowning jewel of our national parks - Yellowstone.