From City of Rocks, I headed toward Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve with one overnight stay along the way. While I was still at City of Rocks, it had begun raining and the roads throughout are dirt. Upon my arrival to the camping spot I chose on the way to Craters, I realized the full extent to which those conditions had affected my rig. It may be strange to mention this, but the mud created by the rain on the dirt roads seemed like it contained some kind of adhesive! The mud that coated many parts of my rig had hardened–and I couldn’t get it off. My cleaning brushes were ineffective. I drive on dirty, muddy roads all the time, but this was like something I had never seen. Since there was no way to clean it, I just had to leave it that way. Fortunately, an angel with a hose and cleaning supplies (plus my elbow grease) came to my rescue several days later.
Craters of the Moon was a unique place. It’s so strange that this landscape is where it is. ‘Certainly does seem like another celestial location. As usual, no dogs are allowed on the paths, so I mostly drove around seeing as much as I could see with a couple short walks here and there.
This was one of the situations where finding public lands to camp was not practical, so I grabbed one of the last spots in the Preserve’s campground. This was also an unusual experience as it was located on volcanic rock.
CotM is an interesting place and certainly worth a visit if only for its uniqueness.
IDAHO. JUNE.
My Side of the Adventure 