Along 75 from Galena Pass we can view the entire Salmon River Valley (well sort of its still smoky).  Just below us a tiny ribbon of green winds its way across the grasslands.  This is the headwaters of the Salmon River.  Pretty cool.

We are buzzing along checking out grasslands and watching for pronghorn. Hey, weird; it looks like giant scale ploughed field…  Actually, it is the first glimpse of the a’ a lava spit out thousands of years ago.  We have reached The Craters of the Moon National monument.  A line of volcanoes has deposited cinders, splattery lava, ropelike pahoehoe that is riddled with lava tubes, and great heaps of this a’ a.   We drive the drive, take a ranger hike and even explore a couple of the lava tube tunnels.  We skipped “boy scout” cave/lava tube.  Its entrance requires a belly crawl then one is greeted with standing water and maybe even a layer of ice.  Thanks anyway!  Indian Tunnel is 30+ feet high, has some holes in the roof to let light in and requires only a bit of rock scrambling to explore.  We made it the 800 feet to the far end of that one.  Beauty cave is tall enough to stand in and is also just a bit of rock scrambling but it is 300 feet long and it gets REALLLLLY dark really quick.  I found that about 50 feet in was quite enough for me. Kent ventured a bit further and caught this pic of his breath. Pretty cool given it was over 90F out today.

This seemingly inhospitable

Dwarf Buckwheat

place supports some great plants. Dwarf buckwheat creates these cool white splotches on the dark soil.  Check out this bright yellow smooth stem blazing star.  We caught it early in the morning.  It closes back up in the heat of the day.

This place can bring out a bit of the rock hound in anyone.

Next stop, Rocky Mountain National Park.