Day 13 Sunday September 15, 2013

Today we drove from Idaho Falls to visit Tim and Glynis at the ranch and on the way stopped in at the Craters of the Moon National Monument.

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En route to Craters of the Moon we saw three hills that looked like volcanoes to us, and indeed were the result of volcanic action, cool. The drive to the monument passes through the Idaho National Laboratory and it was here that many of the nuclear reactors for naval vessels have been developed and built.

Two of the Three Buttes

This place glows in the dark!

 Craters of the Moon is an amazing place, over 640 sq miles of lava flows, the latest that was only 2,000 years ago. We drove the loop road and visited many examples of volcanic activity, that is expected to occur again! They had a very interesting exhibit showing how the hotspot that is currently under Yellowstone has moved over the last 13 million years and where they have discovered calderas dating back to then. They estimate that when Yellowstone erupted about 640,000 years ago it discharged enough material to cover half of the USA under 6 feet of debris. The disturbing note is that this WILL happen again!

The lava cools in amazing shapes

A very barren landscape

This couple decided to ascend this large cinder cone!

From there we drove up Sun Valley and then after going over the Galena pass up the Salmon River valley to get to Tim and Glynis. After we went over the Galena we had the most amazing views of the Sawtooth Mts. This is an amazingly beautiful place!

We found the ranch with Tim's excellent directions and after we had settled in he took us for a tour of the property. The lodge has been at the ranch for over 100 years, but has been updated, however an old register book is there that lists guests back into the 1930's including Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. John McCain was also a guest after his release from a Vietnam POW camp. We saw Seth's hideaway and were then blown away with the hot springs that feed a hot tub and pool!

Glynis then cooked us dinner which we ate outside with the Warm Springs Creek to provide a musical accompaniment.