Finne's Follies: Side Trips in Idaho and Utah

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Places like Craters of The Moon National Monument are stark reminders that the world we live on is capable of some pretty violent behavior.

Even though I lived many of my early years in North Idaho, I pretty much never left the panhandle town of Coeur d'Alene. (Three of my four children were born there.)

I was unaware this place even existed until Mark and I happened to watch a documentary on the State of Idaho while we were parked in Mountain Home.

Craters of the Moon is a lava field - a quite sizable lava field covering over six hundred square miles, with the most recent eruptions occurring as recently as about two thousand years ago. It lies between the Bitterroot and Rocky Mountain ranges, some hundred and fifty miles west of Yellowstone National Park. The place is somewhat off the beaten path, but it's well worth spending an extra day to go see it. That's what we did.

There is a very nice RV park right on site where you can stay on a first-come basis. There were quite a few open spots big enough for our 40-foot rig when we arrived, which happened to be on a Tuesday before the Labor Day weekend. Most of the spaces were smaller, but there was a mix of back-in and pull-through options. The pull-through spot we ultimately settled on was arguably not the best one for our rig, and gave us a bit of trouble when it came time to pull out again, but it was gorgeous. Be advised, the only hookup available in the park is water.

The site's curve was a little too deep

Craters of the Moon park is laid out in such a way that you can see a significant portion of it in just one day. There is a driving loop with parking areas where you can get out of your car and walk around. Most of the hiking trails are short enough for old folks like us - less than half a mile in length. But they also have a few longer trails for the heartier souls. The biggest challenge we faced was climbing up "Inferno Cone." This cone rises some six hundred feet from its base, fairly steeply, but the view from the top is incredible. I got a good cardio workout that day!

Cinder cones, viewed from the top of Inferno Cone

That's NOT the top, we had another short climb beyond

Resting and waiting for my heart rate to calm down

The next morning we headed south to Salt Lake City. This was another last minute decision. We had originally planned to head directly to Mount Pleasant, but Mark was able to get us a spot at the Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina for one night. They have exactly five RV spots, and one of those five spots was available. If I believed in luck, I'd call that lucky.

Camp site on the Great Salt Lake

Dipping his feet

Salt Lake stinks. Literally. It's beautiful, but it stinks...though not nearly as bad as the sulfur fumes from the refinery right across the road. I don't think I could have stayed longer than a day without getting sick.

The refinery was across the road

We had to do some hunting around to find an RV park with space available over the Labor Day weekend. In the end, we settled on Pleasant Creek RV Park in Mount Pleasant, Utah. It's a pretty park, with full hookups and a pool. The spaces are a little close together, but the park was only full for a couple days (and our neighbors were all well-behaved). During the rest of our stay, it was fairly empty. There wasn't much to do or see in the immediate area, and neither one of us felt like driving a long way to see anything. So we decided to save Zion and Bryce National Parks for next year.