Monday, October 04, 2010
What! No moonscape?
While I was hanging around the visitor center the ladies were talking about a letter received from a previous visitor (this past summer) who wanted her money back because Craters of the Moon NM is NOT at all like the real moon which we all now know is more gray and powdery. She was also unhappy that half of the 6 pull outs on the driving loop were closed. You can't please all of the people.
We, on the other hand were ecstatic to have our vehicle fixed and a whole day to explore. We rode our bikes around the loop--and although the road construction trucks were a bit of a nuisance and there were a few climbs, the traffic was generally hardly existent and the weather was perfect.
I don't have time or memory to write the whole geologic history of this part of the world. The volcanoes here were not the explosive kind (like St. Helens) but more the oozing kinds. There are 2 kinds of lava, with Hawaiian names I can't spell--"ah ah" the crunchy kind, and"pahoyhoy" like in the photo above. The natives say these are the scales of a giant serpent.
The trails here are all paved so unlike the early explorers we did not have to actually walk on the lava.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 1:30 PM 
