Adventure Van Travels- Craters of the Moon National Monument

After leaving Glacier yesterday, we took the scenic route 93 to beautiful Idaho on our way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. We’ve wanted to visit this park for years, so I was excited to be adding it to our trip. Our plan was to find either a state park or National Forest campground on the way to the park. However, our pickiness caused us to pass several sites up- too crowded, too far off the road, too close to wildfires we could see helicopters fighting, no water- and we ended up diving all the way and pulling into Arco late at night with no site. We were relieved to find an open spot on the KOA and collapsed into bed.Once we woke up, we were glad we were so close to the park. And also happy to find out a waffle and coffee breakfast is included with your stay at this KOA. After eating, we packed up at headed to Craters of the Moon.This is a cool park! The volcanic terrain is unlike any I’ve ever seen with cinder cones, lava flows, lava tubes and cool formations easy to see from short hikes right off the scenic loop through the park. There are also two art sculptures at different locations as well- one a tree, and the other a huge claimable lava tube. This is one of those parks that you can spend only a few hours and still see a lot. It is incredibly accessible as well- people of any ability would be able to enjoy this park and all the trails I saw were wheelchair accessible. The Visitors Center is full of cool exhibits and we enjoyed an informative Ranger Talk on the front patio.

The campground was currently being rehabbed, but I will definitely stay there on future visits. The sites look amazing nestled in volcanic rock formations. We loved visiting Craters of the Moon, but after a few hours knew we had to leave since we were headed to Moab. On the way, it stormed. But we ended up seeing the most gorgeous rainbow I’ve ever seen over the Utah desert. It was an awesome welcome to one of my favorite states.