CotM Part 1: Caves & Tubes

This spring, Kanyon had a museum at school, and each student in his 1st grade class needed to bring something from their life's history. Kanyon brought the Cousins Camp photo books that I made. We've had two Cousins Camps with the Perkins girl cousins. The first Cousins Camp was in June of 2010 at the Craters of the Moon National Park. When Kanyon was looking at the photos in the book, he couldn't remember any of the things we did there--he only knew he had a shirt from the experience. It was then that I thought it was time to go back to the Idaho landmark this summer, now that he's old enough to remember!

one of the pages in the book

the page that shows the shirts we made while there

When I saw my sister-in-law Jen at the beginning of June, she mentioned that she was planning to go to Craters of the Moon again at the end of the month, and I was overjoyed that we'd both thought to do the same thing this summer! She had talked to some of her friends, and they were planning on having a "mom's camp-out" with their kids for two nights and three days at the CotM site. I was totally on board with the plan, and looked forward to joining them on the trip!

Craters of the Moon is near Arco, Idaho and is full of old volcanic formations. It is such a cool sight for kids (and adults!) to explore. There are hiking trails, caves and lava tubes, and lots of rock features. We had a great time on our first trip there, and since our kids have aged a little bit, I knew it would even be better with them this time.

The plan was to meet up at the CotM campground around noon on Tuesday, June 24th. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from both Salmon AND Logan (where Jen was driving from). She also had two friends drive up from Logan, and they followed each other on the way. We got to the campground first, and thankfully it wasn't busy (since it was during the middle of a week), so we were able to find a campsite that would accommodate our trailer and all their tents. The campsite was also pretty close to the bathrooms, it had a water spigot, and it had a little trail amidst the nearby rocks for the kids to play on during downtime.  

After setting up camp, and eating lunch, we set out on the day's agenda: to explore caves. We packed water bottles, snacks, and flashlights in preparation for all the walking and spelunking. There are several caves within a short walking distance of the main loop road that runs through the park. We all piled into two vehicles, and drove to the Buffalo Caves stop first. It's about a 3/4 mile easy walk to get to the set of lava tubes from the parking lot. The group had a great time exploring all the little outlets to the underground world!

Cousin Aspen and her friend at the start of the Buffalo Caves area

Jonah and Micah in a cave in the center of the Buffalo Caves area.

Jonah, Jen's friend Lael, her son, & Kanyon at the far end of the Buffalo Caves area. 

Josh found a tunnel that went all the way through. This is where he came out.

The boys wanted to go through the same tunnel, so they went backwards and came out the opposite end of it!

Micah squeezing into a small, cool spot

Jonah standing in a large crack

Kanyon in a tight space

We stayed at Buffalo Caves for a while, until everyone felt they'd explored every inch that was necessary. Then we walked back to the parking lot, and all the kids (except Kanyon) jumped into the back of the truck for the drive to the next stop: the Caves section of the park.

Kanyon chose to sit up front to work on his Junior Ranger badge. There was a page with lots of photos of things to see in the park, and when you find those things, you mark them off like a Bingo card. He was buys marking off everything that he'd just seen on the trail; he was pretty serious about the task!

The Caves Section includes 3 caves/lava tubes within a 1/2 mile of each other and a large tunnel that's on a connecting walking trail.

The first cave on the trail is the Dewdrop Cave. It's the smallest one:

We walked to the Indian Tunnel next. It's my favorite, because no lights are necessary since it's mostly open at the top, and there's rocks to climb over and fairly easy for everyone to make it through. At the beginning of it, there's a steep stairwell to descend into the bottom of the tunnel.

Once at the bottom, there's a section of rocks to climb over to begin the journey through the tunnel.

I took my time going through the tunnel, so I was behind the bulk of the group. But at the end of the tunnel, you have to climb back up over a large section of rocks in order to ascend out of it. That's when I caught back up to everyone! 

I captured the other adults in the group taking a break on the rocks at the end; they looked too picturesque, so I couldn't resist taking a photo of them!

At the exit, there's this little built-in cave with natural steps to climb up, and as we were going through it, we found Aspen & her friend in this little cove that's shaped like a parenthesis (wouldn't you agree?!).

After leaving the tunnel, you have to walk back over the tops of the lava rock to get to the entrance and the main paved trail. Once we were up there, we could look down and see into the tunnel in spots along the walk back, too.

When we got back to the main trail, we headed for the Boy Scout Cave. I joked that we looked like the Sister Wives everywhere we went together while camping there. Josh was the only husband there, and there were 4 of us ladies and 11 children always with him!!

The Boy Scout Cave is the deepest cave, and it is so cold and dark that it has ice in it year-round. I didn't have a flashlight, so I kind of got stuck near the entrance after I finally climbed down the rocks to get into it. I used the flash on my camera a few times, just so I could see what surrounded me! 

A patch of ice covers the ground under the boulder on the left.
Entry is in the middle right-you can see the half-circle of outdoor light.
To get into the cave, you have to climb down the rocks on the right.

I waited for everyone to come back with their headlamps and flashlights before I attempted to climb back up the rocks to exit the cave. I don't like going too far into caves anyways, so I was okay with waiting where I could see a small glimmer of outdoor light!

The last cave on the trail is Beauty Cave. It's where the sidewalk ends!

It's the longest cave of the 3. I remember going into it the last time we went to Craters, so I didn't even attempt it this time (it's another dark one, and I had no light source). I just waited on the outside for everyone to appear after they were done exploring it!

By this time, we'd been walking/exploring for four hours. We were all tired of walking and we were all hungry, so we headed back to camp.

I finally figured out why all of Micah's socks have holes in the toe!!

Kanyon's face says how we all felt!!

While Josh cooked our family's tinfoil dinners on the charcoal grill, I took the 3 boys to a junior ranger class in the outdoor amphitheater by the campground that evening. It was interesting and informational, and the boys earned little badge pins as a result.

We ate so good that night!!! First we had tinfoil dinners, which I just love!

Then we ate grilled banana boats--courtesy of Jen and her friends. The boys stuffed bananas with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. They were super delicious! It was our first experience with making them, but we will definitely try them again!!!

Then Josh & I made a blackberry/strawberry dump cake in the dutch oven. We are still experimenting with desserts in the dutch oven, so we're not totally expert at it yet, but it turned out pretty good!

Our first day at Craters of the Moon was awesome! The weather was great, the food was yummy, the company was fun, and the kids and adults had an enjoyable time!!!