Where others see black rock, Amy sees endless beauty. 

I have written about this before but two years ago when we were on our way here for the first time a couple told us, “skip it! It’s a waste of time, just black rock everywhere.”

I was beginning to doubt myself, I had planned this stop thinking it would be a highlight of Amy’s trip. 

Today we are returning to try and experience some of the endless beauty that could never be seen in just one trip.

It would be an understatement to say, Amy loves it here. To her this is her world. A place where every ten feet there exists another wonder she has read about and can’t get enough of.

She must have said “this is incredible.” At least fifty times. She describes the splatter cones, the cinder, the lava tubes, and the other two things I can’t spell or pronounce. Her descriptions were beautiful, more like a fan describing a painting (favorite song) than a vast pile of rock. 

Her enthusiasm is contagious and the kids get the same jitters when they come across a new wtf to show their mom. 

We got a cave permit from a ranger and explored the some of the accessible lava tubes on site.  More like natures historic subway. These giant tubes have collapsed and eroded over the 20,000 years since they formed, they now make for an incredible scramble through the enormous tubes. In the end, we emerged through a tiny exit for a child then made our way back across the scorched, cracked earth that made the first explorers deem this “The Craters of The Moon.” You need only visit for a minute to understand how this area earned its name. 

We still had some energy so we hiked a couple miles to see the interesting tree molds. As the name implies, the lava here seems to cool at the right time as it hugged a dying tree. The tree was able to hold on long enough to leave these impressions. The forest here even left some straight vertical holes from trees once standing but these proved impossible to photograph. 

Tonight we are camping on a lava flow, some of the youngest earth in all of America.  The campground takes no reservations, and on a Friday, is completely empty when we arrive, we take advantage and grab the same exact spot that we fell in love with years ago. The kids remember and are ecstatic. Eventually they would say a tearful goodbye to our families favorite tree on Earth, the Limber Pine that keeps us shaded and has blocked our wind for the second time. 

In the evening, we walked over to the Amphitheater and learned about the early explorers to the area. 

I am already planning a return trip to try and experience some of the endless beauty that could never be seen in just two trips.