Later in the afternoon, we arrived at Craters of the Moon National Park. Having seen a lot of volcanoes, we were curious how different this could be, and we learned that it was a lot different. The Malpais in New Mexico seems to be all one kind of lava, and it is a barren desolate place with little growth. In Hawaii the lava flows are overwhelming - miles after miles of black lava with little in between.
Craters of the Moon is much different. We saw many different kinds of lava:
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| This cinder is mostly air, and it shone many different colors. Wish I could have kept it! |
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| This one looked like chocolate running out of a pan |
we looked down into a spatter cone into deep holes that had snow in them:
and we saw a lot of vegetation growing in the lava. Like a fire, this lava flow spread in interesting ways, not running over everything like it does in Hawaii. Hence, there were pockets of original sage prairie, some trees . . . and trees growing throughout the lava.
The wildflowers were blooming beautifully, which one doesn't expect, and we learned a lot about this kind of ecosystem.
The weather was perfect - overcast yet warm - and the displays great. We had a great day!
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