We’ve been inside for 5 months. We canceled our Grand Canyon hike & overnight at Phantom Ranch as well as our Half Dome hike in Yosemite. We’re away from all of our friends and family.

So, we decided to escape the real world and do a day trip – it was glorious!

Crater of the Moon is a large lava field. At some points in the park all you can see for miles is spiraling lava (more on that in a few), and in other areas plants and trees grow in lava fields. It reminded me that despite destruction, the world can reset itself… hopefully even in COVID.

The monument is a host to numerous smaller trails (many of them ADA compliant/handicap accessible!), lava tubes, caves, the Great Rift, and kipukas.

The Monument’s loop scenic drive brings you to seven main areas, all of which you can get out, and have access to views, small or larger hikes, or “weird features” as the brochure described – the Manfriend loved that I pointed out every weird feature we saw… 🙂

Since the North Crater Flow Caves were closed due to seismic activity over the past year, our first stop was the Devil’s Orchard… how did it get this name you ask? A minister way back when saw the landscape and totally perplexed by the vegetation growth, deemed that plants could only grow in this desolate land if it was made by the Devil.

So there you have it. The Devil, of course.

Inferno Cone

A short yet steep walk up the basaltic cinder cone gave us some of the best views of the day.

North Crater Trail

This 1.8 mile hike (one way) brought you from one parking lot (North Crater Flow) to another (Spatter Cones). Be ready to hike out & back as there’s no shuttle service to bring you from one area of the Monument to the other.

This trail isn’t strenuous, but it does increase and decrease in elevation quite rapidly. with 4-5 steep slopes. The Manfriend got a bit of elevation sickness on our way back – we’ve been inside for 5 months and apparently lost some of our acclimation to the elevation changes. If you’ve ever had elevation sickness, you know what a headache it can be.

We got to walk across the hardened lava, which in every other part of the park isn’t allowed. It was amazing to see the lava ropes and how the lava set once hardened.

In the same parking lot (Spatter Cones), you can walk on a paved path to peer inside a spatter cone. The lava formations were so bizarre – sometimes looking like poop and sometimes like my sourdough starter.

Wilderness Trail

We were pretty exhausted from hiking all day, which is strange to think because this was not the most strenuous of days spent outdoors that we’ve had since coming to Utah. Five months spent indoors barely exercising was really showing its impact on us.

Spotting one other area that looked interesting (and that was open), we pulled in one last time. This area has three trails – the Wilderness (8 mile round trip), Tree Molds (1 mile), and Broken Top.

We hiked a ways down Wilderness Trail, but our exhaustion, my shoulders getting crispy from 100% exposure, and our 3.5 hour drive back to SLC had us turn back before we finished the 8 mile hike.