Cusp Season at Craters of the Moon

Back in our pre-RV life, when I'd plan our whirlwind road trips, I'd justify hitting as many destinations as possible by saying that they're "closer than they are to home." I suppose that's true, but adding in tons of new places can be very fatiguing. Since launching in our RV, we've tried to be a little pickier with our travel itinerary, and after having a traumatic flooding incident, we decided to take things slow as we left Utah and headed north into Idaho. We thought we might stop and see several bucket list locations in Idaho, but as we continued to recover, we instead decided to prioritize. One location that we thought would be extra special was Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It's another destination we had on our canceled 2020 road trip itinerary, and I found it the way I found most of our cool destinations: Google Maps. In typical Nicole fashion, I spotted Craters of the Moon as I was researching the Yellowstone area, and upon seeing pictures, I knew we had to go. Sure, it was an extra 3 hours of drive time to get out there, but lava rocks! See? This is what I'd always do. I'd squeeze in an overwhelming number of places because who knew when we'd get the chance to see them again. Thankfully, we don't need to have that mindset anymore. Now that we're full-time on the road, these destinations are far more accessible, and we can therefore work them into our travels in a way that we can truly appreciate them. Instead of needing to cram in Craters of the Moon, we just routed our travels so we'd be nearby.

Since 2020, we've learned a lot more about the National Monument, thanks to other RVers who have visited there and written about/vlogged their journeys. This place is definitely a hit, and how could it not be? A history of violent lava spews creating a unique geological atmosphere which includes cinder cones and lava tube caves. Then, the historical significance of the area, a diversion for many pioneers along the Oregon Trail, who embarked on tumultuous travel through the lava fields in the height of summer. And constantly changing landscape, ticking time away until the next volcanic eruption.

This year has been a big one for visiting places we were supposed to in 2020, but instead of a mere 3 weeks to run from place to place like we would have on our 2020 road trip, we can now take our time. We ventured off I-15 and booked five days at an RV park in Arco, just 20 minutes from the Craters of the Moon entrance. While we continued taking things slow and regrouping from the flood, we saw Craters as the best place we could rediscover our sense of adventure.

Idaho, like so many other mountainous states, saw lots of snowmelt last winter, and so parts of Craters were opening later than usual. The lava tube caves typically don't reopen until summertime, but the Loop Road, which tends to open around April, was still partially closed to vehicles. However, walking and biking was allowed on the entire loop, and what a great opportunity to take out the ebikes and explore without needing to worry about vehicular traffic?!

In the winter, Craters of the Moon is covered in feet of snow, but in early May, we witnessed the end of the winter landscape, as most of the snow had melted except for a few spots in the shade and the snowbanks left over from plowing. The contrast of the white snow on the black lava rock added dimension, with the lumber pine trees sprouting up from the snowy ground like an ominous Christmas display, while the birds flew and chirped happily as they welcomed spring.

We drove to the Devil's Orchard parking lot, the furthest into the park that vehicles were allowed to go. After the short .5-mile hike on the paved Devil's Orchard Trail, we got out our ebikes and hit the loop. We stopped at Inferno Cone, a large mound created by erupting magma. The hike up is short and fairly steep, but the terrain is easy on the feet. The mound almost looks like a black sand dune, but the ground is actually pieces of basaltic lava rock, very light and porous, with little shimmers of minerals. Unlike sand which causes your feet to sink, our feet stayed light on top of the rocks, which crunched with each step on our way up to the top of the cone. We noticed that the path was a lighter shade of black than the surrounding mound, likely to do with the turnover of the stones from foot traffic. It's no wonder there are tons of signs telling visitors to stay on trail. The area is very sensitive and its topographic future is uncertain.

We really got a sense of how many different species have made Craters of the Moon their home, despite its challenging climate. We saw black, red, and brown lava stones, as well as several plants and trees. Sagebrush is very common there, as is wild onion and dwarf buckwheat. Later into June, we would have seen the plethora of grasses and wildflowers, but instead we saw the budding plants among the patches of snow.

Our next stop was to see the splatter cones, which are made from the drips of magma that erupted into the air and landed in piles. There are short paths leading to the cones, but the cones themselves are very delicate, so they are fenced off. The rocks have formed large, gaping holes, and inside the holes at this time was snow that had yet to melt, and probably wouldn't for some time.

We spent the rest of our visit on our bikes, stopping to marvel at the piles of lava rocks along the way. It was a relatively short visit since many of the areas weren't yet open, but the plus side to that was that we had the loop almost entirely to ourselves.

So, is visiting Craters of the Moon on the cusp season worth it? It probably depends on your reason for going. If your heart is set on the caves, then you'll want to hold off until summertime. If you want to experience the growing flowers and plants that survive in this unique environment, then summer is your best bet as well. However, wintertime gives a whole new perspective of the area, adding to its desolate vibe. Springtime granted us a happy medium, where we got to see the snow but also saw the beginnings of plants blooming and wildlife bustling about. Having the majority of Loop Road closed to vehicles was great. This meant less crowds and the freedom to ride our ebikes without yielding to automobiles. We had all the popular lookouts to ourselves.

Of course, someday we'd love to return to Craters of the Moon in summer to see the lava caves and get the peak season experience. There is a lot we plan to do in southern Idaho when the time is right. But for now, having this adventure reminded us of the positive aspects to RV life. We were able to visit a place that had been on our list for three years, and while we're glad we don't have to worry about 3-hour detours on an already packed road trip schedule, this place was worth a stop, for sure. Just another destination that has brought us full circle from those days in 2020 when we wondered what our future of travel would look like. We never expected this, but we're surely glad to be out here.

Note: There is a campground at Craters of the Moon, which offers first come, first served campsites, some of which fit RVs. We heard that this campground is notorious for larger rigs getting stuck trying to navigate around boulders, and since we had had enough obstacles in our recent travels, we opted to stay at Mountain View RV Park up the street. When we visited Craters, we took a drive through the campground, and while some of the sites were definitely large enough for bigger rigs, the roads get pretty tight. There is a sign at the back loop advising longer rigs and fifth wheels to not continue on. We recommend obeying this sign. We found a few spots that would have fit us, and if you have a van or smaller rig, it looked like a really cool place to camp among the lava rocks. If you'd rather not risk the tight squeeze, the town of Arco has a few nice RV parks, including Mountain View.